Training
by JC303
Summary: 3 days to train for the tournament King's setting up! These events follow Ch. 14 in 5 Years Later, and each chapter tells the story of certain characters over the course of their 3 days before the tourney!
1. Metal and Jill

**If I recall, Future Generations was _SO DAMN LONG _because Ed and I had to split between, like, 4 different groups in a duration of the week Jill was training, and even before then it took about 2 and a half chapters to go through a single day. SO, to save such problems, I decided to divide everything in a more organized fashion ^_^**

**First Chapter dictates Metal and Jill's three days of training before the tournament. The next will be the "Clubhouse Pirates" chapter with the old gang, and then it'll be the "Alpha vs. Chaotix" chapter. You can imagine who would be in there :D**

**So, without further ado, Metal and Jill's chapter.**

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_**Day One**_

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* * *

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The sun was nice and warm in the late morning. A lot of those on the island were excitedly abuzz with numerous things; mainly this big tournament that King was building up. So many soldiers were picking out spots in town, showing off their moves and training. Crowds gathered around them, cheering them on. King's efforts to take everyone's minds off of what was going on were successful; not one person was considering the thought of serial killers on the loose.

Though a little uneasy about the idea of it, Jill had let Joy go with Whisker and the boys, or as they like to call themselves, the "Clubhouse Pirates." Ani promised that she would tag along and make sure to keep an eye on Joy. It wasn't just Jill worrying over Joy either. She wasn't used to spending so much time away from her daughter. Not to mention that she was spending more time with Metal now. It was an adjustment she had to get used to.

Jill sighed. It seemed no matter what, she was never completely relaxed. She always had to be worrying about something.

"...gosh, everyone's really eager for the tournament," she remarked, while she and Metal walked through town looking at everyone training.

"...it certainly seems that way." Metal noted, glancing around him. "Even before it's started, everyone seems at peace."

"Yeah, but that means that the town is a bit crowded," And even after all these years, Jill was still not so comfortable around large crowds.

"Hrm..." Metal hummed, as he glanced around. "...too bad that we're not remotely close to the spring and cave, huh?" he quipped.

"Yeah," Jill said, smiling while she thought about the good times. "...although," she rubbed her chin thoughtfully, her smile growing. "...I might actually know a place on the island that we could use."

"...is that right?" Metal hummed, as he glanced at Jill with a nod. "Well, let's go there, then."

"Okay. Follow me," Jill turned towards the woods, hurrying a bit. Nodding, Metal followed Jill without a word. The two of them sprinted through the woods for awhile, at least until Jill's legs couldn't handle it, and the two slowed to a walk.

Jill brought the two of them to a place in the forest where there were large, rusted, steel walls, connected to a big gate with gargantuan, split doors. Inside there was a pitch dark hallway. "Just in through here," Jill said, crawling through the space between the doors; which were also pretty rusted up. Metal followed suite, taking a small moment to observe the doors.

"Alright...first we have to start up the generators..." Jill murmured. Metal followed her down the hall of darkness to a door, and into a large room, where numerous generators were all lined up. Jill went to turn on the monitor screens at each one of them, briefly typing. Every time she was finished with that and moved to the next one, the generator hummed loudly to life, and Jill finally got all of the generators on, filling the room with a deafening, rumbling hum.

Then she pulled Metal out of that room and led him down the hall, which was now brightly lit with lights. They headed toward a pair of giantic double doors. On the door had large letters.

"**AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY**," in big, red, faded letters.

"Too bad we're not 'authorized personnel'," Jill joked.

"Well, I'm sure that no one will mind us." Metal chuckled, as he looked up at the door. "Now what's beyond there...?"

"You'll see," Jill giggled, walking up to it so that the doors would open automatically for them.

Inside, was a sight to behold. It looked like a LARGE safe house within a titanium fortress; literally large safes lined up on each floor that this place went up, and it went for quite a few floors. Everywhere, there were platforms rising and falling between the different levels. Safety precautions like lasers pointed everywhere and bustling robotic security units were positioned all around the place. There were also large fans in the room on the floor, rotating at full blast upwards; with no apparent rational function or reason for doing so whatsoever.

Metal blinked, as he looked around the room with widened eyes. "...well, now... I'd never have imagined that this would still be standing." he mused.

"Neither did I," Jill said, "but I found it a year or so ago."

"...how convenient." Metal noted, as he looked around him. "No one else knows about this place, right?"

"Nobody but me and Sage, and she could go without saying," Jill said.

"I see... how very convenient for us." Metal noted, rubbing his hands together. "So, how shall we be training?"

"I think we could make up a kind of game," Jill started. "Similar to what Rouge was sent here for...about 65 years ago I think it was, we could find something we could use to hide in the safes, and then one of us has to go find it while the other tries to keep them from finding it. It's simple, yet productive for building speed, agility, endurance, etc."

"That sounds like a plan." Metal nodded, as he folded his arms. "Perhaps I could be the one trying to keep you from getting the object... though, what should we use?"

"...good question," Jill murmured. "...maybe there could be something in the safes that we could use?"

"...true enough..." Metal nodded. "...and if there isn't anything in them, I suppose I could just form something from liquid metal... or..."

"Wait..." Jill looked at Metal. "...Metal, can you still make copies of yourself?"

Metal blinked, as he looked down at his hands. "...I... suppose... the only thing I'm unable to do with these powers now is changing my appearance."

"Well, what if your copies would be the ones that would stop me, and the real you was hiding in a safe?" Jill supposed. "...it'd be like some kind of game of hide and seek."

Metal hummed, before nodding. "...that works. But if that's the case, you'll need to close your eyes for a moment." Jill not only closed her eyes, but she turned her back to Metal. _...now..._ Metal thought, as he glanced at his hand, where a small tendril of liquid metal emerged from. _...how to do this..._

A few minutes passed with Jill keeping her eyes closed, but after a while, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder, indicating that she could look again. So she looked.

Once she turned, she saw four different machines looking back at her; one of them seemed to be a robotic echidna, and the others were different versions of Metal Sonic; Silver Sonic, Mecha Sonic, and the original Metal Sonic model.

_"I've hidden myself within one of the safes. Try and find me, if you can,"_ Silver Sonic uttered with a nod, before the four machines took to the sky.

Jill watched them fly, and took a deep breath. "Ready or not, here I come."

When she spotted a bungee pulley nearby, she ran to grab it. The pulley yanked her up into the air, easily allowing her to jump onto the highest floor of the area, and she started off in a run towards some safes to start her search.

As she headed for the safes, Silver Sonic and Mecha Sonic suddenly flew towards her, intending to intercept her path. Jill flipped over with a hand that catapulted her right over the two, landing on the other side and easily continuing on a run. Quickly spinning around, Silver Sonic suddenly rocketed right after Jill, whilst Mecha Sonic took to the air, flying ahead of her. Jill screeched to a halt when Mecha Sonic stood in her way, and seeing Silver Sonic coming in from behind, she leaped over with a back flip, letting Silver Sonic shoot right under her and run into Mecha Sonic. At least, that was the idea; unfortunately, the moment Jill left Silver Sonic's gaze, the robot immediately spun around, rocketing after the ewe once more.

It was a narrow ledge to try and get away from them, so Jill decided to try and fight for once, raising her leg to try a kick at Silver Sonic once he came.

Silver Sonic, however, quickly raised his arm to block the kick, just as Mecha Sonic flew right behind Jill, essentially trapping her. Clenching their fists, both of the robots aimed a punch right at her. In desperation, Jill bent backward a little far, watching both fists soar over her nose. This time, neither of the robots didn't anticipate her ducking, as their fists slammed into each other, sending them skidding several feet away from Jill.

"Whew, that was close," Jill huffed, quickly approaching a safe.

Before she could open it, however, a fist hit the door off its hinges into the inner walls of the safe, barely missing her. Looking back, she saw that metallic echidna glare at her with its green eyes.

"...whoa..." Jill croaked, stepping away from this echidna cautiously.

That didn't seem to help, as the echidna stomped closer to Jill, cracking his fists menacingly.

Jill toughened to a stance, knowing she either had to fight or flee, and she figured she would try to fight, so she threw a kick at the robotic echidna, "YAH!" The kick, while it did connect, didn't exactly push the echidna away from her. With a small, mechanical growl, the echidna reeled his fist back, aiming a fierce punch at Jill.

Jill flew off the edge with a yelp, caught by the flow of the fans which magically bounced her up in the air. This allowed her to bob to safe ground, and once on her feet, she felt something drip from her nose. She touched it to find blood on her fingers. "Ouch," she uttered, wincing.

_"...what? Don't tell me that's it?"_ she suddenly heard someone utter mockingly, as the echidna stood on the ledge above her, its arms folded whilst giving Jill a condescending look.

Jill wiped her nose on her sleeve, looking up at the robotic echidna. "Give me a break, I'm a little rusty," she grumbled. "You try going from being a heroine to a mom!" She spotted another bungee pulley and went for it, hoisting up to the level right below where the echidna stood, so she could try and search the safes there. Then she screeched to a halt.

_"Sure; I'll get to that when I find a way to change genders."_ the echidna quipped, somehow standing right in Jill's way, simply leaning on the door of a safe whilst observing his knuckles.

Jill glared at him. Then she turned around to go the other way.

This time, however, the echidna suddenly appeared in her path yet again, now simply throwing jabs at the air.

Well, Jill was starting to get a little discouraged by this, gritting her teeth.

_"Come on; weren't you supposed to be doing something?"_ the echidna quipped, glancing at Jill. _"Like, finding Metal, for instance?"_

"...alright," Jill growled, cracking her knuckles.

Suddenly, she flipped over and aimed a harsh kick right for the echidna's face. The kick sent him staggering a bit, but the echidna merely shook his head, before glaring at Jill. _"There we go!"_ he chuckled, before throwing a flurry of jabs at Jill. Jill blocked the jabs this time, catching up to this echidna's processed speeds almost instantly. When there was an opening, Jill threw her fist into the echidna's stomach area.

Had it been an organic opponent, that would actually have stunned him for quite a while; however, being a machine, it only knocked the echidna back a bit. _"...I'd say something, but I'm too nice for that sorta thing,"_ he quipped, before aiming another punch at Jill.

Jill didn't get to block it and the punch hit her in the face again. She held her face in the recoil, wincing again while a little blood drizzled from her cut lip. However, she finally just looked back at the echidna, wiping her lip. She wasn't sure how much longer she was going to last; her body was aching again, and she was starting to loose some steam. It had been a long time since she worked her body so hard like this.

Then she spied a line of lasers behind her, and an idea came to mind, so she spun and started running for them. Slamming his knuckles together, the echidna ran right after Jill. Upon reaching the lasers, Jill flipped over again. With acrobatics, she weaved through the tightly positioned lasers, entering into a cage of nothing but lasers. Hopefully, this would keep that echidna from getting through.

The echidna stopped short of the cage, glaring at Jill for the moment.

Jill looked back at him, trying to hide the fact that she was catching her breath.

Looking around him, the echidna merely shrugged, before suddenly flying straight through the lasers. How he managed to lose only his left arm and part of his right leg was a mystery, though with his remaining arm, he aimed a powerful punch right at Jill's face.

Jill was so shocked at him flying through the lasers that there was no way to avoid that punch. It sent Jill soaring off the platform, falling from the second floor to landing it hard on the first floor's...uh, floor. It hurt badly, and she was too stunned to get up.

At that point, the echidna flew down towards her body, placing a foot on her back to keep her down. _"Man, and here I thought this would be a challenge. Seems I was mistaken!"_ he laughed.

That laughter...it shouldn't mean anything to her, but for some reason it did...

Jill was so weak, she couldn't do anything but lie there and listen to that laughter. She had been through this before... what she went through; it made her feel so helpless. Chained up...beaten... she didn't know why this was coming to her mind, but it was coming to her very slowly. Because of that, she started to feel the heat of anger boil up insider her rapidly.

To a point where she snapped.

Jill let out a roaring cry, snatching the echina by its neck joint by some amazing ability from where the echidna had her pinned and hurling him right into the ground, creating a dent. This floor was made of mental, mind you, so it took some serious brute force to accomplish that feat. After that, Jill was on him, throwing punches at his face with such blinding rage that there was no hope of stopping her; even when she punched him with so much force that her knuckles actually started bleeding.

But she just wouldn't stop.

"...that's enough!" Suddenly, someone quickly grabbed Jill from behind, trying to pull her away from the echidna.

"NO! LEAVE ME ALONE!" were the only words Jill got out before she struggled out of their grasp, spun around, and punched whoever it was that touched her; a move of desperation.

The punch sent this indivudual straight to the floor, as he could only hold his bloodied nose in bewilderment. "...what's gotten into you, all of a sudden...?" Metal uttered, looking up at Jill with a confused expression.

"...oh my god...Metal!" Jill ran to him, but she was almost too afraid to help him after what she did. "I-I'm so sorry! I..." she just couldn't answer Metal's question; she wasn't sure at all how to explain it, and even then she had no idea what just happened.

It just happened.

Metal merely blinked, as his gaze moved over to the metallic echidna's dormant body. "...you... certainly made a number on Metal Knuckles," he noted, before he tried getting back on his feet.

Jill finally had the nerve to help him up, looking over afterward at the echidna called Metal Knuckles. Needless to say, he was a wreck. His face was practically caved in as a result of Jill's onslaught, and pieces of bloodied metal (the blood lingering from Jill's hands) were scattered around him. Had this not been a creation from liquid metal, one could easily label him as beyond repair. She looked at her own blood-stained hands, stunned. "...I...did that?"

"...y-yeah..." Metal uttered, looking away from the mangled wreck of a machine. "...maybe we should take a break." he suggested.

"...Metal, I'm so sorry," Jill repeated out of fear. When she went to walk to him, though, she stopped. Her legs gave out and on her knees, she held her hands in pain. Now she was paying for it.

"Jill..." Seeing this, Metal quickly knelt by her, gently taking her hands. "...we need to get these treated..." he muttered.

"...yeah..." she mumbled. She was pretty shaky right now too, not just out of weakness but she was pretty frightened at what just happened.

"...though, should we go back into town with your hands like that?" Metal muttered; concerned that too many people would start worrying themselves sick over this. "...we'll need to find a First Aid kit, or something..." he hummed.

"...I think I might know where one is," Jill said.

"...well, let's go and find it." Metal nodded, as he slowly stood up, trying to help Jill up as well. "Can you walk?"

"...maybe," Jill answered. Taking her first step was hard for her; it was almost as if she was weakened to the point where Metal first found her on that beach again. "...or maybe I shouldn't have pushed myself too hard," she murmured under her breath.

"...just take it easy, now..." Metal uttered, placing a hand on Jill's shoulder, so he could be ready to pick her up in case she lost her footing. "Let's go."

Jill limped away with Metal out of the safe-house and back through that hallway, returning to that generator room they had previously gone to. Conveniently on the wall beside the doorway was a First Aid kit. Jill, not really thinking about it, reached to pick it up, realizing that she had no strength to grip in her hands, and when she tried to, she only felt more pain.

This caused the First Aid kit to slip from her hands and drop to the ground. "Oops."

Metal let out a small sigh at this, crouching to pick up the First Aid kit, and then looking at Jill. "Do you think you could take a seat? I'll take care of your hands."

Jill rubbed her hands. "Sure," and she sat down with her legs crossed on the ground.

Opening the first aid kit, Metal took out the various items contained within it. "Alright, let's see here..." he muttered.

Jill let out a weary, uneasy sigh. "...I don't think we should use Metal Knuckles..." somehow, she felt that the kind of personality the metallix had given off was the trigger of her abnormal behavior. It just reminded her of something...unpleasant. Something that she couldn't even put her finger on.

"...right..." Metal nodded, as he got out some bandages and disinfectant, before glancing at Jill. "I'll clean your wounds first, so keep in mind; this will most likely sting."

"Alright," Jill murmured.

Nodding, Metal poured a bit of disinfectant on a swab of cotton, before he carefully began cleaning Jill's wounds, making sure not to be too forceful. Jill winced but she was calm about it. A little sting was nothing to her, really. After a short while, Metal was finished, as he reached for the bandages. "...perhaps it would be smarter to have you hide this time?" he mused, carefully wrapping up Jill's wounds.

"Probably," Jill said. "But do your copies really have the free will to try and stop you?"

"...if I could give them differing personalities..." Metal hummed, before looking at Jill with a slight smile. "...then I should have no problem getting past that loophole."

"Okay," Jill said, trying to get up. Amazingly enough, she actually got to her feet by herself this time.

Metal looked up at Jill with a smile, before he got on his feet as well. "...you'll be alright, now?" he inquired.

"I think so," Jill said, smiling back. She still felt a little guilty for punching him, but she wasn't going to let that get her down.

With a slight nod, Metal folded his arms. "...so, shall we give it another try, Jill?"

"Yeah," She said, turning and walking out of the room into the hall...

...strangely enough without any struggle in doing so.

Metal blinked upon seeing that. _...she... recovered from that pretty quickly... _he thought, before following her. _...and she doesn't seem bothered by the injuries sustained from Diablo's and Raider's torture, either... just what's going on?_

They reached the safe house again, and Jill looked around to see which place she would hide.

"...you just pick a place; I won't look." Metal noted, closing his eyes.

"...alright..." and Jill started running off somewhere.

With a silent nod, four tendrils shot out from Metal's back, each of them quickly attaching themselves to one of the copies he had previously created. Absorbing them back into his body, Metal slowly opened his eyes just a bit. _...let's see... Sonic and Knuckles are done... who will be next? _he thought, before three new tendrils shot from his back, slowly forming into three other mechanical shapes.

One of the blobs of liquid metal formed a certain sleek black hedgehog with red stripes; but it was more of a robotic, metallix version of this character, with glowing red eyes shooting a glare at Metal. Another glob of liquid metal shaped into another metallix of sorts, being a version of a familiar white bat whose glowing dark blue eyes glanced at Metal with interest.

The last glob seemed to hesitate in its transformation.

Metal blinked, as he looked at this last blob. _...what on earth... _he thought.

Finally it started to change, growing steel horns and its metallic surface picking a dark brownish-red color. By the time it spouted a golden ring in its nose, Metal realized to his utter shock at what the glob was transforming into. When it was finished, a metallix version of a particular bull glared at Metal with glowing red eyes. Metal could only look at this creation with absolute shock, actually stepping a bit back from seeing it. He had intended to create the master of espionage from Team Chaotix' glory days, but before him stood a character who he hadn't considered whatsoever.

"...Brick?" he uttered meekly.

The bull metallix did not respond.

_"Try and find her if you can,"_ chuckled the white bat metallix, just as the three of them scattered away to their places to begin.

Metal blinked, as he shook his head. Sure, dealing with Shadow and Rouge wouldn't be that much of a challenge... but why did his technology glitch out in trying to create Espio? And... why Brick, of all people?

_...is it Novagod playing a trick on me?_ he thought, before shaking his head._ No... he shouldn't be able to control my liquid metal... but then... why? _Rubbing his temples, he began walking towards the safes located on the lowest floor; there was a chance that Jill could be hiding in one of them, after all.

Metal was first confronted by the metallix version of Shadow, who ran at him to trip him. Metal, however, simply caught the leg before it could reach him, hurling Metal Shadow to the side so he wouldn't get in his way. "...like that would slow me down." he muttered, before singling out one safe, which he ran for.

That's when a blur with a pointed heel drilled right through the door of the safe, and before Metal knew it, the door was flung off its hinges, aiming to hit him. The door didn't get far, though, as Metal quickly formed blades out from his palms, slicing the incoming door in half so it couldn't strike him. "...too slow, Rouge." he quipped, before running for another safe.

Metal Shadow appeared out of thin air right in front of Metal's path, quickly throwing a kick at Metal's face. The kick caught Metal by surprise, sending him skidding back quite a bit. "...not bad..." he muttered, glaring at Metal Shadow, before running right at him, throwing a punch at the black Metallix. Metal Shadow only caught Metal's fist, and while the black metallix kept him there, Metal Rouge started flying up from behind to stab Metal with her heel drills.

"...gotcha." Metal chuckled, as the moment it seemed like he would be pierced by Metal Rouge's drill, he simply warped right behind her, watching as she rocketed towards Metal Shadow. Metal Rouge impaled Metal Shadow with her heels, basically rendering it immobile.

Once she pried herself free from the wreckage of Metal Shadow, she flew right at Metal again to throw a series of kicks, hoping to maybe even cut him with those sharp heels. However, quickly whipping forth a pair of blades, Metal quickly parried the kicks, before aiming a slash at the metallic bat, hoping to render her immobile as well. Metal managed to cut off one of Metal Rouge's legs, but even then she kept trying to kick at him. With one leg, however, Metal easily managed to step away from her, before aiming to slice off her other leg. Still, Metal Rouge was persistent. With wings she could still move, flying at Metal to punch him now.

"...you just don't give up..." Metal muttered, as he stepped away from the punch, before warping behind Rouge, now aiming a slash at her wings.

With her wings clipped, Metal Rouge rolled over on the ground, finally giving up.

_"...I won't give up as easily as she did."_ Something grabbed Metal and hurled him with brute force against one of the walls then.

Being thrown against the wall like that, Metal felt the air get knocked out of him, sliding to the floor. "...kkh... brutal..." he coughed, before looking up at his attacker, and he had just enough time to see Metal Brick charging at him with his horns. Thankfully, he managed to roll away in the nick of time, simply looking at the metallic bull. "...I know I made you three specifically to attack me... but you're more vicious than the others..." he mused, getting to his feet.

_"...that's because I'm not letting you find her,"_ Metal Brick growled, cracking his robotic joints in his knuckles. Then he ran at Metal to throw a punch.

Metal responded to this by moving away from the punch before it could connect. "Even so, you display far more brute force than either of the other two, and they both shared the same objective." he noted, trying to keep his cool, before hurling Metal Brick against a different wall. Once he did that, he quickly rushed towards a different safe.

Somehow, Metal Brick had jet thrusters in his heels that allowed him to outrun Metal, and stop him in his tracks with a punch to the face that knocked him to the floor. _"You think I'm going to let you take her away from me, like that?" _he growled.

Wiping blood from his lips, Metal looked up at Brick with a baffled expression. "...I beg your pardon?" he uttered.

_"You heard what I said, bastard!"_ Metal Brick snarled, with a sharp knife jutting out from his palm to try and stab Metal. Quickly, Metal rolled away from the Metallix's attack, looking at him in bewilderment.

"Of course I heard you, but... what are you talking about?" he uttered; too surprised by the machine's actions to even think of mounting an offensive against him.

_"...the way she talked about you...it should have been obvious,"_ the robotic bull kept growling aggressively, yanking the knife out of the ground. He rushed at Metal to push him off into the crack between the floor and the giant wind-tunnel fans.

Before he could fall, however, Metal quickly warped up to a higher floor, looking down at Metal Brick. "...you..." he uttered.

Metal Brick switched the direction of his jet thrusters in his heels, and flew right up to the level Metal stood on. _"...it's not fair..."_ he snarled. _"...no matter what I did for her, you were always the one she was thinking of!" _and he charged to ram Metal with his horns.

This time, however, Metal simply grabbed hold of the metallic bull in mid-flight, keeping him in place, thought not saying a word.

_"...what gives you the right to come back to her?"_ the bull questioned, trying to push against Metal with growing force. _"What have you done for her, other than abandon her? You don't love her like I do!"_

"...what have I done for her?" Metal uttered, glaring at Metal Brick with a small frown. "I saved her soul from years of torture! Or did you forget that little tidbit?" he yelled, before suddenly stepping to the side, causing Metal Brick to rocket right into the wall.

Metal Brick hit the wall, and had a time yanking his horns out from the wall he ran into. _"Even then, you're just going to leave her again! You're not really going to stick around and help her through her struggles! You didn't do it last time, so what would convince me that you would stick with her this time?" _and he charged for Metal again; not only with his horns but with his knife in his palm this time.

Thia time, however, Metal stopped Metal Brick not just by slamming his hand against his head, but using his other hand to halt the incoming knife, letting it stab through his palm. Gritting his teeth in pain, Metal glared at the robotic bull. "...back then... things were different." he growled. "I couldn't stay with her, because I needed to protect her... protect everyone... from Novagod... but now, she really needs someone to support her... and you're not around to do the job!"

_"But you make it sound like some duty you owe to her!" _Metal Brick growled, pushing against him still. _"If that's all it is, then you can turn right around and leave her again!"_

"...and let people like Diablo have his way with her and Joy?" Metal growled, as he began pushing against Brick as well. "I will not have them go through any more hardships; they don't deserve that fate!" Then, he closed his eyes. "...just like you did not deserve your ultimate fate."

_"What happened to me, happened!"_ Metal Brick continued, trying to push Metal off the edge of the second floor. _"But I'm not going to let her get hurt because the guy she loves doesn't see it the same way back. If all you see is that you owed her favors, rather than genuinely feeling for her, then you're no better than Diablo!"_

Hearing him say that, however, Metal's eyes suddenly shot open, as he suddenly stopped getting pushed back. "...how dare you..." he uttered murderously, as his stabbed hand slowly clenched itself, actually crushing Metal Brick's hand. "...I genuinely love her... and I'd do anything to keep her and Joy safe..." he snarled, as he glared at Metal Brick... though something was happening to his organic eye; it seemed to flicker, for some reason. Metal Brick stopped advancing, while his glowing red eyes were drawn to this flicker in confusion. Not only that, but the fact that Metal crushed his hand really changed his attitude on things.

"...and I will not be compared to a murderer like Diablo..." Metal snarled, and for the briefest moment, Metal Brick didn't see the organic Metal Sonic glaring at him.

For that briefest of moments, he saw the metallic Neo Metal Sonic, glaring at him as if he were an angel of death.

"...not even by you." he uttered coldly, before spinning around, hurling the Metallix right down at the spinning fans below. Since the robotic bull was too stunned with what went on, his fate of becoming chopped apart and utterly destroyed within the blades of one of the fans was inevitably so.

Witnessing his destruction, Metal took several deep breaths, as he sank to his knees, desperately trying to calm down, but to no avail._ ...it's over, now... just relax... _he thought, closing his eyes, as his breath eventually began slowing down.

After a while, Metal got to his feet, albeit shakily, as he glanced at the injury he sustained from holding back Metal Brick. _...how did that happen...?_ he thought, before he began walking towards one of the safes. _...is that really how you feel about the situation, Brick? You'd rather I abandoned them? _he thought, before opening a safe door.

Luckily enough, there was Jill, sitting patiently. "Hey, you found me," she muttered, standing up.

Then she saw Metal's hand in shock.

"...what happened?" she uttered.

"...oh, this?" Metal hummed, looking at his wounded hand. "...poor judgment call on my part." he lied. "In hindsight, avoiding an incoming blade is better than blocking it with your palm."

Jill came over and gently took Metal's injured hand, looking at it worriedly. "...we should fix this up," she said.

"...probably, yeah." Metal nodded, giving Jill a nod. "Let's go take care of this..."

The two dropped back to the first floor and left the safe house, returning to where they left the first aid kit. Then Jill remembered that her own hands weren't in the best condition... "...oh..." she murmured under her breath, realizing this.

Metal couldn't help but chuckle just a bit, as he began cleaning his own wound as best he could. "...I'll have to remind myself not to make them so aggressive next time." he noted.

"Yeah..." Jill murmured, watching him do this. "...in some ways they were pretty believable..."

"...yeah; almost like the real deal." Metal hummed, before he began wrapping his wound in bandages.

When bedtime rolled around that night, both of them were pretty exhausted. Joy was still not quite sleepy yet, sitting on the bed with her feet rocking back and forth happily, trying to tell them of her adventures today with Captain Whisker and the 'Clubhouse Pirates.'

"That's nice..." Jill murmured in remark to what Joy was saying; though she wasn't really paying attention. She was so tired that she was yawning. "C'mon Joy, it's bedtime," she urged her daughter under the covers.

"Aw," whined Joy, but she climbed in bed anyway and snuggled up to the pillow. Glancing at Joy, Metal couldn't help but chuckle a bit, as he got in his own bed. Once Joy was settled in, Jill started stroking her hair, as much as she could anyway with her bandaged hands, and gently hummed a little lullaby to her with the intention of calming her down to go to sleep.

Listening to this lullaby, Metal slowly closed his eyes, letting his thoughts drift away as he was overtaken by sleep. Jill was successful putting Joy to sleep as well, and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Then she noticed to some surprise that Metal was already asleep too.

She smiled while she climbed in bed next to Joy, and closed her eyes to go to sleep herself.

* * *

_**Day Two**_

_**

* * *

**_

Jill jumped up from her bed in a cold sweat, taking a minute to calm down.

...it was just a dream.

She looked at her side, and Joy was still peacefully asleep; just the way she left her. Jill turned her head to the bed on the other side, and Metal was also there, fast asleep. They were both okay... it was still fairly dark, so it was possibly still early in the morning.

Jill wiped her brow to relax. The dream she just had was unnerving in the least... she heard Joy screaming bloody murder, and no matter how much Jill ran, she couldn't find her. Then when she saw Metal, he disappeared before her very eyes, and the next thing she knew she heard him screaming in pain too. Just what exactly would set off that kind of a nightmare anyway? It was out of place...

She rose from the bed and headed to the tiny bathroom they had, switching on the light. Then she turned the sink on and proceeded to wash her face. When she wiped her face with the towel, Jill finally noticed something that should have been obvious much earlier.

Her hands weren't hurting.

Quickly, Jill started unwrapping the bandages, and when they were fully off, she made a small gasp. Underneath the slightly bloody rags were delicate hands; smooth and untouched by any scars whatsoever.

"...no..." she uttered, shaking her head in denial.

"...mmrh..." Mumbling, Metal slowly woke up, sitting up in his bed whilst rubbing his eyes. "...Jill?" he uttered, once he noticed that she wasn't in bed.

Jill hurriedly hid her hands within the towel she used to dry her face. Even then, she knew there was no point in hiding this. "...uh..."

"...is something wrong, Jill?" Metal uttered, as he got up from the bed, looking towards the bathroom.

If she tried hiding it now, then he'd only find out later, and Jill didn't have the heart to lie to him. "...I think you need to come see this," she murmured.

"...alright..." Metal uttered with a nod, as he walked into the bathroom, looking at Jill. "...what is it?"

Jill heaved a sigh, and took the towel off her hands, showing him. "...look..."

Seeing Jill's hands, or more importantly, the fact that they were no longer injured from yesterday, surprised Metal considerably. "...but... how...?" he uttered.

"...I don't know," Jill uttered. All she knew was that this was a bad omen to her...

"...hm..." Metal hummed, as he looked up at Jill. _If those wounds recovered so quickly... could it be that..._ he thought.

Jill started to think of some way to prove this. "...give me something sharp."

Metal shot Jill a look. Just from hearing that, he had a feeling on what she was going to do. "...don't overdo it." he said, holding out his hand for a small, sharp blade protude from his palm.

Jill took that blade, unhooking her arm from her jacket so she wouldn't rip it in the process of jabbing that blade in her upper arm and ripping a bloody slice across it, cringing through the whole thing while she bit her tongue.

Metal winced a bit as well. "...you didn't have to go overboard like that, Jill..." he muttered.

She shut her eyes tight, and clenched her teeth to keep from uttering a cry in the pain.

But she could feel the pain deteriorate away to her relief as she concentrated.

And Metal could see the cut slowly shrivel away from her arm. _...it's... healing itself so quickly... _he thought. Jill used the towel to wipe the remaining blood away, and once she had done that, she opened her eyes to see that her arm was perfectly fine.

"...it's...coming back..." she uttered uneasily.

"...but... that can't be..." Metal uttered, as he held his head. "...your powers... they disappeared after I took Novagod's soul into my body... does that mean...?" He shuddered; he didn't even want to think about it...

...though, it did remind him of what Callous had told him some days ago...

_"It's like he's blocking everybody off...which means he's definitely up to something. I don't think you're going to get him either, until he starts to execute whatever he's got planned."_

_...is he setting something in motion... and are her powers reacting to that?_ he thought. Jill shut her eyes again, and grit her teeth some more. All around her body the scars and bruises from what were done to her days ago were withering away, just like the cut she made on herself. Metal merely looked at this in silent awe. _...what could be causing this...?_ he thought.

Soon all of her physical scars were gone, which she could see in the mirror when she opened her eyes. This was amazing...but it was also scary. This was so unreal to her, after living 5 years without her powers. Not to mention that if the past was any indication, this meant that something was coming up ahead in the future.

Something bad...

"...I'm worried about Joy," Jill murmured, glancing into the room where her daughter was still asleep.

Looking back into that room, Metal nodded. "...me, too..." he hummed, before he closed his eyes. "...we'll protect her." he eventually said, looking back at Jill.

"...yeah..." that managed to bring a small smile to Jill's face. "...together."

Smiling back, Metal nodded. "...together." he agreed.

Later on when the sun rose and the daytime came, Whisker and the boys whisked away Joy again for the day, allowing Metal and Jill to return to that abandoned GUN facility; to the safe house again.

Since Jill's healing returned, she actually felt a little more confident about this; even though she was still unsteady about the whole thing. She started to wonder if her other powers were coming back too, and she knew she would find out if she experimented during the training exercises.

"...why don't you hide first again?" she suggested to Metal.

"Sure; I can do that." Metal nodded. "Just make sure not to watch where I hide, now."

Jill turned away and closed her eyes obediently. A few moments of silence passed, before someone tapped Jill's shoulder. Jill opened her eyes and turned.

What she saw were three robots; one of them a metallix version of a pink hedgehog wielding a massive hammer, a robotic armadillo with a red shell, and a red robot wielding a machine-gun arm. Giving her a nod, the three robots hurried off; the hedgehog up to the second floor, the armadillo onto the third floor, and the robot onto the first floor.

Jill decided she would start at the highest floor and work her way down. She didn't see the bungee pulley nearby, so she ended up running off elsewhere. She did, however, spot a familiar looking spring with a large yellow star on it.

"...look at that," she murmured.

When she jumped onto it, it sent her soaring pretty far into the air, landing onto a high ledge that overlooked the entire safe house. She was impressed with the view when she observed from up here. Then she saw that a ventilation shaft went across from her ledge to the third floor, so she used it as a bridge and ran through the third floor to their safes.

When she got closer to one of the safes, the armadillo Metallix landed in front of her, casually waving at her. _"Yo."_

"...Hi?" Jill responded, looking at this armadillo with a raised eyebrow. It seemed that Metal was actually trying to capture Mighty's character in him.

_"Sooo... I bet you're looking for Metal."_ Metal Mighty hummed, as he glanced around him. _"But he's not up here, if you're wondering about that."_

"...okay..." Jill still looked at him weird, but decided to turn and climb right down to the second floor to start looking there.

Once she got to the second floor, she noticed the pink hedgehog simply standing around, keeping a watchful eye out on her surroundings... though, at the same time, failing to spot Jill just yet.

This was getting weirder for Jill, but instead of standing there, she actually tried to see if she could sneak past the pink hedgehog metallix so she could start her search. Even stranger, this actually seemed to work, as the hedgehog's attention was fully focused on looking down at the first floor. Jill got a chance to look in a good many of the safes without that metallix noticing, finding nothing in any of them. Finally, it was bugging Jill.

"...what're you looking for?" she suddenly asked.

_"I'm trying to see if I can't find my target."_ the metallix responded bluntly, though still, she did not take notice of her target literally having asked her that question.

_...wow... _Jill thought, trying to hold in chuckles. "Alright then. See ya," Jill said, walking right past her across the second floor, looking for a way to climb down to the first floor to look there.

Before Jill could get too far, all of a sudden, she was grabbed by the hedgehog's cold, metal hand, as she looked at her. _"...by the way, have you seen my target anywhere?" _she inquired curiously.

"Oh, I have," Jill answered with a chuckle, wondering how far she could take this. "They're about...ye high," she raised her hand to her own height.

_"Uh-huh?"_ the metallix nodded, urging Jill to go on.

"They wear a green coat like mine," Jill pinched her coat for the metallix to see.

_"Really?"_ the metallix nodded. "_I gotta keep this in mind... go on, go on!"_

"And they-" Jill tried to suppress more giggles, "-they would be looking for Metal."

_"Ooh, would they?"_ the metallix nodded. _"Alright, keeping that in mind... but keep going!"_

"Now the last thing you want to know about them," Jill giggled. "Is that they are sly, and a master of disguise. They could be anyone...anywhere..." then another idea formed in her head. "...it could very well be one of the other robots on the other floors. They're that sneaky."

_"Really?" _the metallix uttered in surprise. _"Man, I didn't even think of that! Can you take me to one of them?"_

"Yeah," Jill said, turning to walk away, assuming the robot would follow her.

The moment she turned around, all of a sudden, a massive object slammed into the ground right next to her, denting the floor considerably. Jill jumped, shooting a glance right back at the metallix. As it turned out, she had whipped out her hammer, slamming it next to Jill as a warning, shooting her a deadly glare with her red eyes. _"...next time, I won't miss." _she hissed, before weighing the hammer on her shoulders.

"...so much for messing around," Jill croaked with wide eyes.

_"What, did you think that I wouldn't see through your lies?"_ Metal Amy scoffed, as she raised the hammer over her head, ready to slam it right down on Jill. _"None of the robots even wear green jackets!" _she yelled, before bringing the hammer down.

Jill leaped away, just in time for the hammer to pound another dent into the floor. _I need to get rid of her,_ she thought._ If I don't, she'll cause more problems._ So Jill raised her leg and aimed a kick at her.

The kick sent Metal Amy staggering back a bit, as she shook her head. Growling, she suddenly hurled the hammer right at Jill. Jill rolled away from it again, avoiding its deadly blow. Then she started a barrage of kicks at Metal Amy. Surprisingly, Metal Amy blocked them all from hitting anything but her arms, before grabbing hold of Jill's arms. _"...behind you."_ she taunted, as all of a sudden, the hammer spun around in mid-air, flying right back towards Jill and Metal Amy, poised to strike the ewe from behind.

Jill had to think quick, and since Metal Amy had her by the arms, she swiftly flipped right over her, ending up on the other side so that the hammer was aimed for her instead of Jill.

However, Jill had severely underestimated the strength of the hammer, as when it slammed into Metal Amy, it propelled her right into Jill, sending both of them plummeting towards the first floor.

It took a minute after Jill hit the ground for her to be able to get back up again; that kind of fall hurt. Then she looked at Metal Amy to see if she was still active.

Sadly, she was; slamming a hand into the ground, Metal Amy slowly tried pushing herself off the ground, shooting Jill a vicious glare. _"...you'd better run...!"_ she snarled.

"...oh dear..." Jill murmured, actually running away from her.

As she ran however, something else stepped in her path; the last robot, which quickly aimed its machine-gun arm at Jill. "Freeze." the machine said in a somewhat familiar tone.

Jill stopped obediently, spinning around to look at this robot.

Walking towards Jill, the robot kept its gun trained on Jill, glaring at her. _"...surrender peacefully."_ it said.

_"Good going, Gamma!"_ At that point, Metal Amy slowly stumbled towards the two of them, glaring at Jill. _"Just leave her... to me!"_

"Hm..." Jill knew that there was nothing to lose against these two; now that her healing was back anyway. Then that's when more ideas came into her head. She looked down at her hand, hoping that this would work...

_"...negative."_ Gamma uttered, as he turned his head to look at Metal Amy. _"You failed to take her out. You've had your chance."_

_"Hey, I can still fight her!"_ Metal Amy growled, whipping out her hammer. _"I won't have trash compactor like you tell me otherwise!"_

Jill suddenly whistled at them to get their attention.

Blinking, both of the robots glanced at Jill.

The next thing the two robots knew, Jill rushed at them in a flash. Then they next saw her on the other side of them, with something in her hands.

It was a golden blade with a strange looking hilt; the arms of an angelic wing, and a demonic wing wrapped around a black and white rose; a green jewel planted inside it. Both of the robots couldn't even comment on this, as both of them slowly fell to pieces as a result of being cut up by that sword.

Jill smiled, raising her sword to a perch on her shoulders. "...I still got it," she chuckled.

_"...not bad!" _she heard someone congratulate her, as the robotic armadillo way up on the third floor was clapping his hands over her success. _"But do you think you can not point that thing at me next?"_ he inquired jokingly.

"I don't know," Jill answered, looking up at him. "It depends if you don't end up being in the way of-_**AGH!**_"

Just then, Jill felt a sharp pain strike her back. Some kind of object was stuck in her, and glancing over her shoulder, she saw that it was a knife impaled in her back.

Weakening intensely, she fell onto the ground. She desperately reached for it, but it was hard with her strength diminishing away. Not only that, but it managed to stab close to her lungs, filling them with blood. She wheezed and coughed, still trying to reach for that knife. It was hard for her arms to bend back that far...

She collapsed, coughing out blood. For a moment, it really looked like she was done...

_"WHOA!"_ Quickly, the armadillo leaped down from the third floor, slamming down on the first floor, before rushing over to Jill. _"How the hell-"_ he uttered, before he quickly yanked out the knife from Jill's back. _"...kkh..." _Quickly looking around the area, Metal Mighty growled_. "Where the hell are you?"_

Jill shut her eyes, biting down her tongue in her pain. Yanking that knife out of her hurt.

Someone stepped out from behind a giant metal crate, looking at Metal Mighty with dark crimson eyes. "You both intrigue me...," it was a certain leopard that everyone was hunting down; Diablo.

Metal Mighty blinked, as he looked straight at the leopard. _"...when did you get in here?" _he uttered, standing protectively by Jill's side.

"...I followed you two here this morning," Diablo said. "Well, at least her and Metal Sonic anyway..."

_"...crafty..."_ Metal Mighty hummed, tapping his foot against the floor. _"...why do you wanna kill her?"_ he said after a while.

"Not kill her, just wound her," Diablo corrected. Then his eye turned to Jill. "And I did it to test something..."

The stab wound on Jill's back shrank and disappeared then, allowing Jill to breathe more easily. She didn't want to do it in front of Diablo, but she knew that if she didn't then the injury would grow fatal.

"...I knew it," Diablo murmured. "Your powers seem to be coming back, Jillian."

Jill's eye shot up at Diablo with a gasp. So many questions filled her head; mainly one. _...how does he know about that?_

_"...so you like sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong..."_ Metal Mighty mused, cracking his neck. _"...don't take this personally- oh, wait, DO take this personally." _In the blink of an eye, Metal Mighty was suddenly right in Diablo's face, aiming an absolutely devastating kick right at the leopard.

Diablo was sent through the air, but he made a nice recovery with a flip back onto his feet. From out of his shirt, he somehow managed to pull out another knife identical to the one he had thrown at Jill. "It aught to be interesting fighting a creation of Metal Sonic's," and he rushed forward with a swipe.

Metal Mighty was quick to raise his leg to block the knife, bringing the two to a standstill. _"...you're kinda stupid, you know that?"_ Metal Mighty noted, before he dropped down to his hands, though still keeping the knife at bay. _"Don't bring a knife to a fistfight."_ Just then, a pair of rocket thrusters emerged from the sole of his other foot, igniting so that the leg arced at Diablo with an even stronger kick than before.

Diablo was launched right into the current of the fans, and ended up landing on the second floor on his head. "Ow..."

Leaping up into the air after Diablo, Metal Mighty began spinning rapidly around in a circle, rocketing down towards the leopard, intending to slam his heel down on the serial killer; with the speed he rotated at, the ensuing impact would be deadly. Diablo somehow managed to vanish the moment Metal Mighty would strike him down with that heel.

Jill pushed herself up onto her feet, watching this.

Looking down at where Diablo had been, Metal Mighty blinked. _"...how the hell did he vanish like that?"_ he wondered, before quickly looking down at Jill, in case Diablo was planning to attack her again.

Instead, Diablo reappeared from the ceiling of the second floor, falling on top of Metal Mighty with a kick.

Somehow, Metal Mighty noticed this, and quickly leaped backwards before Diablo could strike him. _"...how did you do that?"_

"Illusionist artist," Diablo chuckled.

_...that looked a lot like what Corruption could do, _Jill thought nervously. _But without any help from darkness._

Diablo continued chuckling, while he pressed his foot against the wall. Then somehow, he proceeded to walk up the wall casually; a wall that was at a perfect 90 degree angle no less.

Jill's eyes widened.

Watching this, however, Metal Mighty was not too impressed. _"...so you know a few tricks; big deal." _he muttered, before rocket jets flared from both his feet. _"I bet those tricks don't help you with defending yourself!"_ Then, in yet another blink of the eye, Metal Mighty appeared right above Diablo, both of his legs intending to slam against the leopard with tremendous force.

Diablo fell onto the ground in more pain, shakily trying to get back up. However, he pulled another trick out of his sleeve, somehow.

Metal Mighty found that a chain was wrapped around each of his ankles. Before he could do anything about it, Diablo quickly attached the chain to a security robot unit that rolled by, yanking the metallix away through the air.

_"Wait, what the hell?"_ Metal Mighty yelped, looking at this. _"How the hell did this happen? I didn't even see these chains before!" _Growling, Metal Mighty bent himself forward so he could try and grab the chains; being a machine, he likely wouldn't have any problem of just ripping the chains apart via brute force.

"Like I said: illusionist artist," Diablo reminded, watching Metal Mighty land on the first floor again. Then he looked at Jill. "Aren't you going to try and fight me?"

Jill frowned with her arms folding. "...I shouldn't have to waste my talent on you, Diablo. Is that what you really came here for?"

"Not essentially," Diablo murmured vaguely.

_"Don't get caught up talking!"_ Before Diablo would know it, Metal Mighty was right in his face once more, now delivering a rapid flurry of rocket-powered kicks at the leopard. Jill winced at how beaten up Diablo was getting from these kicks. Diablo finally got away from him, but only to fall to the first floor. It was the only way he would've gotten away from him.

Before Diablo could get far, however, Metal Mighty suddenly leaped down to the first floor, quickly stomping his foot down on the leopard to keep him from moving. _"...those illusion tricks of yours don't help you with your weak body." _he uttered.

"Think again." Diablo pulled something else out from within his shirt, and it turned out to be some sort of tazer, which he jabbed into Metal Mighty's leg that pinned him down.

While he didn't cry out in pain, the electricity circling through his body was causing Metal Mighty to jerk about quite erratically, indicating that it was affecting him quite adversely. However, even while being electrocuted like this, Metal Mighty raised his other leg, and mercilessly stomped it down on Diablo's other arm, with enough force to crack the very bone.

Diablo let out a cry, indeed feeling the bones in his arm breaking underneath that foot.

Glaring down at Diablo, even with electricity coursing through his circuitry, Metal Mighty slowly lifted his foot off Diablo's arm, before slowly moving it above the leopard's head, ready to crush it beneath his metal sole.

Diablo was actually afraid that the metallic armadillo would do it, and he shut his eyes.

_...do it... _Jill was so startled at herself when the thought came, but she suddenly felt such an intense hate toward Diablo; so much that she really wanted Metal Mighty to actually kill him right there; make him die a slow and painful death...

...but why?

Silently, Metal Mighty glared down at Diablo, before suddenly sending his foot right down onto Diablo...

...but the moment it would have connected with the leopard's skull, it stopped. Was this a sudden act of mercy? Or merely a decision not to kill him right there?

It was neither of those things. Slowly, Metal Mighty collapsed onto the floor, his circuits fried beyond recognition thanks to the taser electrocuting him.

"...huh...dumb luck," Diablo murmured, looking at the fried robot. His arm hurt like hell, and he probably couldn't even move it any more, but it was a small price to pay for a miracle like that. He withdrew the tazer into hiding within his shirt, and then looked over at Jill; still lying on the ground.

Jill glared back at him...hiding the uneasiness underneath of wondering why she wanted him dead.

"...well, aren't you going to finish me?"

Jill jumped when Diablo asked that of her. "...what?"

"Aren't you going to finish me?" Diablo repeated. "Don't you want to kill me?"

Jill grew very nervous. It was almost as if Diablo had read her mind about how she spontaneously felt when Metal Mighty was about to kill him.

"...or don't you remember?"

When Diablo said that, Jill shuddered, and still she had no idea why. What Diablo was talking about confused her... and then she got to thinking. The three days everyone said she was supposedly missing for...was that what Diablo was talking about?

"You don't remember, do you?" Diablo deduced by her clueless and shaken expression. "It would explain a lot. Right now, you would have that blade of yours up to my throat if you remembered what I did to you."

"...what you...did to me?" Jill uttered.

"...funny that you should mention that..."

Just then, Diablo was grabbed by the back of his head, yanked up to his feet, to feel cold metal pressed against his throat. "...about half of the island's denizens would want a blade close to your throat... myself included." Metal uttered coldly, inching a blade protruding from his palm closer to the leopard's throat.

"...Metal...don't be so hasty," Jill muttered uneasily.

"Actually, he has perfect reason to be hasty, Jillian," Diablo continued, almost undaunted by the blade Metal pressed against his throat. "But I suppose that's one of the things that are admirable about you. No matter who someone is, you don't think they deserve to be killed in cold blood."

What he was saying was really starting to creep Jill out.

"You are so thoughtful of others; you even go to such lengths of sacrifice for them...even killing yourself to save Metal Sonic here."

Jill covered her mouth in horror. He knew that too?

Growling, Metal pressed the blade closer to Diablo's throat, drawing blood. "...give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you here and now." he snarled.

"I probably don't even have a good reason to argue with," Diablo admitted. "But Jillian may not be able to handle seeing a such cold kill in front of her delicate eyes. After all she's been through, I would think that she probably couldn't take much more killing."

Jill remained silent. This guy had a way of crawling into your skin and persuading you.

"...tell me Jillian...what would you do if little Joy found out her new daddy was a killing machine, once?"

Jill quivered.

"Do you think you could handle that thought, while watching him kill me?"

"...Jill... do not listen to him." Metal uttered, as he looked at Jill with sincere eyes. "...don't take his words to heart. I know his type; he must revel in sowing doubt."

Jill was growing scared. She had no idea what to do, because while she knew Metal was right, the sniveling freakshow was actually getting to her. She had been through enough emotional trauma for Diablo's words to pierce her.

Since both their guards were down, Diablo punched Metal away with his free hand, and threw something down on the ground, which erupted into a cloud of black smoke. Metal was pretty much fully blinded by this black smoke, which forced him to cover his eyes. Soon the black smoke withered away, and for obvious reasons, Diablo was gone.

"...kkh..." Seeing him gone, Metal shook his head, eventually glancing at the deactivated Metal Mighty. "...Jill..." he said after a while, looking back at her. "...are you alright?"

"...I'm not sure if he was just trying to confuse me by playing mind games..." Jill spoke. "...but it was working." And she rubbed her brow while her nerves were trying to calm down.

Metal looked at Jill with a concerned expression, slowly approaching her. "...don't let it get to you." he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Jill took a deep breath. "...maybe we should take a break from training."

Metal nodded in response. "I was thinking the exact same thing, Jill." he said.

Jill momentarily looked at Metal. Then she put her arms around him and set her head on his chest, needing a hug. Nodding, Metal placed his arms around Jill, giving her that hug she needed.

"...those three days I was missing..." Jill held Metal tighter in insecurity. "...he's the reason I had those scars, and bruises...isn't it?"

Metal was silent for a few moments, as he closed his eyes. _...should I tell her?_ he thought, a bit unsure if saying it could have some adverse effect on her...

...then again, he probably shouldn't lie about this. "...yes..." he eventually murmured, holding Jill tighter.

Jill trembled a little. "...when you and Sage dove into my mind...you saw what he did to me?"

Metal gritted his teeth; he did not want to remember what he and Sage saw in Jill's mind. "...yes..." he muttered.

"...how come I can't remember any of it?" Jill asked him.

Metal was silent for a little while. "...someone... took your memories of it." he muttered. "...she didn't want you to remember those horrible misdeeds..."

"...was it...really that bad?" Jill uttered.

"...yes... that was the case." Metal nodded.

Jill thought back to yesterday, when Metal Knuckles laughed at her, and how she reacted to that. Could that have been a memory of that experience she had? Her eyes widened, realizing how horrible those things might have been. If it drove her over the edge to behave like that...

She held Metal tighter in slight fear, while thinking this.

Feeling her hug grow tighter, Metal remained silent, simply holding onto her.

"...why?" she uttered. "...why would he do those things to me?"

Metal let out a small sigh. Should he really tell her? That the only reason they did all that to Jill was because they wanted Callous to emerge?

"...Metal?" Jill murmured in uneasiness again.

"...they..." Metal began, closing his eyes. _...sorry, Jill..._ he thought, before taking a deep breath. "...they did all that... so they could bring out Callous."

"...what...?" Jill couldn't believe it. Diablo knew about Callous too?

"...it's hard to believe; I know..." Metal muttered, slowly opening his eyes.

It WAS hard for Jill to believe. It was just hard to believe that Diablo somehow gained so much information on her that no one else could possibly have known about. He knew what Metal was before...he knew what she did for him...and he manipulated her emotions...

...like a certain vampire.

Her heart was beating faster in fright, and for some reason she didn't feel so good.

"...Jill?" Blinking, Metal quickly looked at Jill with a concerned expression. "Jill, what's wrong?"

Jill felt like she was losing strength, while at the same time her senses started tuning out of reality; her vision darkening. With one last breath, her eyes closed and she fell limp in Metal's arms.

"Jill?" Quickly, Metal pulled away so he could see Jill hanging limply from his arms. "...she fainted..." he uttered, before closing his eyes. _...damn it... did the news hit her that hard? Forgive me, Jill... _he thought. "...I need to get you back." he eventually said, before picking up Jill, carrying her out of the safe room.

* * *

"...ow...ow...ow..."

Limping through the jungle was not Diablo's idea of spending the afternoon, but at least he was alive. Lucky him; with the broken arm, and the aching muscles that were torn with being thrashed about.

"...what did you do now, Diablo?" a cold, small voice uttered, coming from up in a nearby tree.

"...I got in a fight," Diablo murmured, looking up at the tree.

"...did you go after Jill again?" As it turned out, the one in the tree was Kiri, holding a jar filled with different worms that wriggled about within it.

"...yes," Diablo groaned. Next Kiri was probably going to nag him about how that wasn't necessary and how stupid that was, and blah, blah, blah.

"...I bet you're thinking about how I'm going to scold you for being so stupid and doing something unnecessary and blah blah blah?" Kiri presumed, as she took one of the worms out of the jar, quickly closing it before any of them could emerge from it.

"...there are times, when you creep even me out, Kiri," Diablo murmured.

"I just know you that well, Big Brother." Kiri giggled, as she looked at the worm that tried getting out of her grasp. "...but that aside, you should be more careful." she said more seriously, slowly twisting the poor worm in her grasp. "If you were to die, I would be all alone... and I wouldn't be able to get Callous and Johnny to play with me."

"...there were some interesting things I discovered," Diablo said. "For instance...Jill can speak now. The rumors we heard were true after all." Then he rubbed his chin. "Seems a lot of rumors turn out to be true..."

"Mhm." Kiri nodded with an unenthusiastic hum, as she only kept twisting the little worm. "...I really wish I could understand these critters..." she muttered, before giggling. "...so I could hear their cries of anguish..."

"...don't those regenerate if you split them in half?" Diablo said, looking at the worm she twisted up.

"...whoever said that I would let them do that?" Kiri giggled, momentarily stopping her torture show, as she looked down at Diablo with a cold smile.

"Eh...just wondering if you knew that," Diablo said, shrugging. Then he winced, since the shrug hurt his arm. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go fix myself up..." he muttered, limping onward.

"...you're losing your edge, Diablo." Kiri called in a sing-song tone, before she slowly took a bite out of the worm, watching it squirm in its death throes with a look of pure delight on her face.

"...shut up," Diablo grumbled, hiding the fact that Kiri saying that bothered him.

Kiri merely giggled, before she slowly squished what was left of the bug between her fingers. _...he needs to set his priorities straight..._ she thought, before smirking devilishly. _...I think I need to act on my own, soon._

_

* * *

_

_**Day Three**_

_**

* * *

**_

_"Callous!" _

_I ran. _

_I was running through this dark void. It seemed useless to keep running through this place, because I didn't see what, or who I was looking for. Even then, I was running to desperately find her. "Callous!" I cried. Surely she would know the answers I was looking for. After all...she had the memories that were erased from my mind. Maybe she would know how Diablo got all that information on me, and why he was trying to pull her out of me._

_But if only I could find her._

_"Callous!" I stopped and spun in circles. It was no use to look around in a dark void like this when I saw NOTHING but darkness, yet I still did it. I really needed to find her... _

_"...get out of here..."_

_I gasped, and spun around. There on the floor of the void was someone tied-up. She looked as beaten up as I did a few days ago before my healing returned; maybe worse. When I ran to her, I recognized her. "Callous?" I gasped again._

_Callous barely lifted up her head, and her bangs shifted away from her face to show her black eye, and swollen up face. "...get out of here...now..." she hissed. _

_"Callous, who did this to you?" I questioned._

_"DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME?" Callous snapped, startling me. "I SAID GET THE F*** OUT OF HERE!"_

_I stepped away from her, afraid. "...Callous?"_

_"You're the only one who can protect Joy," Callous growled. "If he takes you too, then we're in deep shit. You hear me?"_

_"...who?" _

_"JUST GO GODDAMNIT!"_

Jill's eyes shot open, shaking where she was laying down at the thought of Callous' loud voice scaring her like that. Why did she yell so harshly at her?

She was injured...That shouldn't even be right. Callous only existed within Jill's mind, and she wasn't really something that would be inflicted with a physical injury of any sort...so why did she look like that? And who was this 'he' that she said would take her if she didn't go?

So many things scared Jill right now; it scared her thinking of what Diablo could have done to her to make her act like an animal focused on nothing but survival, the fact that her powers were coming back and may foreshadow things to come...

...and now this.

She was back their room in the facility, in her bed. Checking the clock in the room, it read 8:20am. Jill wondered if the clock was wrong, or if she really had been knocked out until the next morning. Then she noticed with a gasp that Joy wasn't sleeping at her side. "Joy!" she uttered, sitting up in a fluster.

"Don't worry, Jill." someone said behind her; Metal was leaning against the wall, looking at her. "Whisker and the boys picked Joy up before you woke up, so she's with them right now."

Jill let out a sigh of relief, and rubbed her arms to get rid of her shivers. "...thank goodness..." With what Callous told Jill about protecting Joy, she was really frazzled up when she saw Joy was gone; that, and the fact that Jill was her mother could go without saying.

"...you had a nightmare?" Metal presumed, as he sat down on the bed, looking at Jill. "What happened?"

"Well, it's just that I was looking for Callous," Jill said, without really thinking about what she was saying. "I wanted to know if she knew why Diablo was after her, and I find her on the ground, gravely injured..."

"...injured?" Metal uttered, tilting his head. _...how could that be?_

"She yelled at me to leave her there and get out, and every time I questioned why she just snapped at me," Jill continued. "She said something like 'I'm the only one that can protect Joy' and 'if he got me too then we were in trouble..." Then she looked at Metal. "She yelled at me so much that I finally left...it just sort of scared me."

"...I see..." Metal nodded, as he scratched his head. _...he...?_ he thought, before blinking. _...n-no way... she couldn't be talking about... but he's locked inside me! ...isn't he?_

"...I don't know what's going on, but it's really freaking me out," Jill uttered.

"...mmh..." Metal nodded, trying to shake that thought from his mind. There was no way that he could have escaped this prison; absolutely no way. "...whatever's going on..." he eventually said, before he looked at Jill. "...we'll get through it."

Jill looked back into his eyes, and grew to believe that, nodding back. Seeing that, Metal couldn't help but crack a slight smile, placing a hand on Jill's shoulder.

"...if Diablo followed us, then would it be safe to go back to the safe house?" Jill asked.

"...I'm not sure." Metal admitted, scratching the back of his neck. "...but if you do not wish to go to the safe-house now, then I completely understand."

Jill didn't want to totally bail on training. "The tournament is tomorrow," she said. "So we should go there, and get as much training as we can get before then."

"...alright." Metal nodded, before he stood up, still looking at Jill. "Shall we?"

Jill pushed the covers off her and she brought her feet around to stand up with Metal. She didn't walk away, however, without giving Metal a kiss on the cheek. "Lets go," she said, leaving out the door.

Placing a hand on his cheek, Metal smiled just a bit, before following Jill out the door.

"Well, since yesterday we sort of cut off when I was looking for you," Jill started, "I don't know if we should finish that, or let you have a turn to look for me." She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "To be honest, I don't really want to start over, myself..."

"I understand." Metal chuckled, as he nodded. "You go and hide, and I'll search for you."

"Close your eyes, then," Jill said. Once Metal did, she looked around and ran off quickly. Metal proceeded to form three more blobs of liquid metal, to form them into opponents he would have to face; taking care to make sure that they wouldn't be as brutal as their predecessors.

One glob turned from silver to golden, creating two shift-turn tails before the rest of the body followed, resembling a fox that was once so young. Next glob turned copper, and spouted long ears, becoming a metallix version of a rabbit. The last one grew stripes of black and yellow, growing a black helmet with long antennae that were also striped with black and yellow. This one was of a very young bee.

Looking at all of them, Metal sighed. _...how the days have passed... _he thought, before nodding. "...you know what to do." he said to the three robots.

Each of them nodded back and scattered away immediately.

Metal began walking towards some of the safes, letting out a small sigh of relief. _...at least he didn't show up this time... _he thought, recalling that incident two days ago. _Thank goodness that Jill didn't see that..._

The first metallix Metal encountered was the rabbit, who looked very intent on keeping alert. Though at the moment, she hadn't noticed Metal yet...

Seeing the rabbit, Metal decided to keep a low profile by silently sneaking past the rabbit whilst checking the safes.

Metal only got through a few of them before the rabbit finally noticed him there. _"Hey! You're not supposed to be there, Mr!"_ and the rabbit used its gigantic ears to take flight and kick Metal.

Having been alerted to this, however, Metal ducked underneath the incoming kick, before leaping back from her. "...my apologies; I didn't realize that I stepped out of line." he said, before briefly bowing. "I'll be going, now." he said, before rushing to the fans, letting them carry him up to the third floor.

_"Okay. Have fun with Metal Charmy!"_ the rabbit waved.

"...Metal Charmy..." Metal blinked once he heard that. _...how to keep him distracted...?_

_"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"_ Something came at Metal, swinging someting sharp at him.

_Hn? _Quickly, Metal ducked underneath that object, quickly looking towards his attacker.

It was the bee; Metal Charmy as the rabbit called him, and the metallix had a shap stinger out of his back end. _"You're not gonna find her! You're not gonna find her!"_ Metal Charmy teased in a sing-song voice, as he came for Metal with his stinger again.

Before he could reach Metal, however, he simply grabbed hold of Metal Charmy's stinger, holding the bee in place. _...let's try distracting him. _"Hey; do you want something shiny?" he eventually said, forming a shiny marble from his free hand, waving it around so the metallix would notice, and hopefully be enticed by it.

_"Ooooooh..."_ Metal Charmy was definitely hypnotized by the shininess of this object, his red glowing eyes following its movements.

Whilst he kept moving the marble about, a tendril stuck out of Metal's shoulder, which sprouted more of those shiny marbles, waving about too, to further allure Metal Charmy. "You want these, don't you?"

_"Yeah!" _Metal Charmy cooed_. "YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!"_

"Is that right? You really want them?" Metal chuckled, as more tendrils sprouted from his body, each and every one of them sprouting even more of those shiny marbles; almost too many to count. "Very well... go get them!" With that, he hurled all of the marbles up in the air, in order to give Metal Charmy something to be occupied with for quite a while.

_"WOOHOO!" _cheered Metal Charmy, rushing after all of these shiny objects.

With a small grin, Metal quickly began searching the safes, seeing as Metal Charmy was fiercely occupied with the marbles.

What Metal didn't know was that Metal Charmy was actually collecting up all of the marbles for some purpose...

Not that it really mattered to him, as he simply kept searching for Jill.

_"Oh Meeeeeeetaaaaaaaaal!"_

Blinking, Metal glanced behind him to see what it was.

Metal Charmy had what Metal could only assume looked like a toy machine gun. One click, and he started shooting at Metal.

And hilariously enough, the ammunition were the marbles that Metal gave him.

_...when did I design him with a machine gun? _Metal thought, as he watched the marbles sail towards him. With a sigh, Metal formed a wall of liquid metal in front of him, acting as a shield.

However, what was noteworthy about this wall was two holes in it, which Metal formed specifically so that the marbles would fly into one of them... before they rocketed right back at the sender through the other hole.

_"AHHH!" _Metal Charmy flew around the marbles that were shot back at him, while stupidly trying to continue shooting at Metal. _"That's not fair!"_

"Well, that's what happens when you take other's generosity for granted!" Metal called, as the hole where the marbles were shot out of was actually moving in accordance with Metal Charmy, actively trying to shoot him down.

_"AHHH! STOP IT!" _Metal Charmy cried, even though he was STILL shooting while Metal bounced the marbles back.

Well, not for long anyway. Metal Charmy found that the gun finally just clicked rather than shot. _"...uh oh. Out of ammo..."_

"Seems that way." Metal chuckled once the hail of marbles stopped, before he suddenly warped himself, along with the wall, behind Metal Charmy. "Later." he said, before smacking the small bee with full force, using the wall as a club.

_"WAAAAAH!"_ Metal Charmy flew across the safe house. What was also funny was that later, Metal could actually see the rabbit metallix fly after him.

Metal blinked, before chuckling a bit. "I suppose that takes care of that…" he mused, before searching for a path that went to the second floor. Upon reaching the second floor, Metal encountered the fox metallix, staring right back at him with those glowing red eyes. Metal hummed. _...this is going to be the tough part..._ he thought, remaining stationary.

_"...sorry. I can't let you find her,"_ and the fox's arm changed into a cannon.

"...I had a feeling that was the case." Metal hummed. "Unfortunately, I'm going to find her, whether you try to stop me or not."

_"I'll have to try then." _And the fox unleashed an EMP at Metal.

With a nod, Metal quickly avoided the incoming EMP, running around the floor so he could try and open the safes without Metal Tails pestering him too much. The two tails on him spun and Metal Tails took to the air, following after Metal to keep firing at him. Glancing up at the air, Metal frowned, as he quickly outmaneuvered the shots, before a couple of tendrils shot out from his body, rocketing right at Metal Tails. Metal Tails jumped away from the tendrils and tried to avoid them while he persistently fired at Metal.

Still, Metal kept on avoiding the shots, looking back at Metal Tails from time to time. _…I need to find some way I can-_

All of a sudden, one of the EMP blasts managed to strike Metal's left leg, and as electricity coursed through it, it was suddenly rendered immobile, causing Metal to collapse right onto the floor, unable to move his leg. "Kkh… damn it…"

Metal Tails confronted him, aiming the cannon right at him in order to fire once more. _"I got you."_

Gritting his teeth, Metal glanced up at Metal Tails without a word, unable to move out of the way now that he was being targeted like this.

The cannon lit up with electricity and pulsed, growing enough power to shoot at Metal.

Closing his eyes, Metal tried desperately to move out of the way. _…can't let it end like this…_ he thought. _…I need to prevail…!_

Then, in an instant, Metal was surrounded by a dark-green glow, before he suddenly vanished from sight.

_"...what?"_ Metal Tails certainly didn't expect that, and he looked around frantically for Metal.

"Behind you." Before Metal Tails would know it, all of a sudden, something slammed into the back of the metallix's head, sending him rocketing right into a wall. Metal Tails slowly peeled his face out of the wall weakly, turning around to look at what hit him. As it turned out, it was Metal, as one could see the faintest glimmer of a dark-green aura surrounding him, whilst he clenched his hands a few times.

"…shall we try that again?" he said; however, the most noticeable thing about him now was that his arms had become mechanized, and his left leg had become organic.

Metal Tails aimed and shot in alert.

However, the blast merely sailed past Metal, as he quickly dodged it, whilst running straight at Metal Tails, opening his hands so the metallix could see the sharpened fingers on his robotic hands.

Metal Tails panicked, shooting at Metal again to stop him and not really thinking about flying out of his way.

Still, his efforts were in vain, as Metal simply weaved his way past the incoming shots with ease, before ending up in front of Metal Tails. "…you're finished." he uttered, before suddenly jabbing his hands into both Metal Tails' gut, along with his arm cannon.

Metal Tails' glowing red eyes flickered, and sparks jutted out of where Metal stabbed him.

"…I should thank you." Metal uttered, watching those flickering eyes. "I didn't think I could change my appearance… but it seems that I can, after all." Then, he pulled his hands away from Metal Tails, stepping backwards. "You've served your purpose… and I am grateful for that."

Metal Tails immediately collapsed to the ground, and shut down for good; lying motionless on the ground.

Seeing him collapse, Metal let out a sigh, as he looked at his mechanic hands. _…it seems that I can't willingly turn fully organic or fully metallic, yet… _he thought, before closing his eyes.

As he did that, a brief burst of that dark-green aura shimmered around him, and liquid metal coated his hands, turning them organic once more; this, too, led to some liquid metal draining away from his left leg, rendering it mechanic once more. _…I should look into it more after the tournament concludes…_ With that in mind, Metal began searching for Jill once more.

Finally, he found the safe she was in. Although, Jill didn't notice him somehow. When he looked upon her, Metal immediately noticed that Jill was in some sort of...trance. Metal blinked, as he looked at Jill curiously. "…Jill?" he uttered, hoping to catch her attention.

That didn't get her attention. She just sat there.

Blinking again, Metal cautiously approached Jill, carefully tapping her on the shoulder. "…Jill." he uttered. Jill suddenly grabbed him, clutching to him and shuddering. She looked very pale. Seeing this, Metal looked at Jill in worry. "…wha-what's wrong, Jill?" he uttered.

With a gasp, the color returned to Jill's face, and then she slowly blinked and looked at him. "...Metal?" she murmured. "Where am I?"

"…you're in the safe you chose to hide in." Metal uttered with a puzzled tone in his voice. "…but… what happened? You seemed so pale, and…"

"...I was?" Jill touched her face wonderingly, and rose to her feet, looking around.

"…you mean… you don't remember if anything happened to you?" Metal uttered, tilting his head.

"...I don't," Jill replied, looking back at him. "I almost didn't even remember hiding in here..."

Now, Metal was dumbfounded. _…that's… strange… _he thought, before shaking his head. "…perhaps we should consult Sage about this?"

"...I don't know," Jill murmured, walking out of the safe.

Metal looked after Jill as she left, walking out after her. "…do you think you can handle another round, or would you like to take a break?"

Jill turned around to Metal. "I think we could do some more rounds."

Metal blinked, before nodding. "…all right." he said.

* * *

The day started coming to an end when Jill and Metal finally returned to town, and once there, they were encountered by Whisker and the group. The group pestered Jill if Joy could sleep over on the ship with them, since she's been hanging around so much. Jill was reluctant about the idea, but when she was reassured that Joy would be watched carefully, she finally agreed to it. The group hurried away with a cheer.

So when the evening came, Jill and Metal headed toward the pub to relax a bit.

"Hi guys," Ani greeted when she saw the two enter through the door.

Metal regarded a simple nod to her, as he and Jill took a couple of vacant seats by the counter.

"Want anything?" Ani asked them.

"Just water," Jill answered. She remembered the last time she drank, and it wasn't such a good idea.

"…same to me." Metal nodded.

Ani just looked at Metal for a minute. "...hm..."

"What is it Ani?" Jill asked.

"...you know..." Ani leaned over the counter and smirked at Metal. "There's something I've been wondering since you got here."

Metal blinked, as he looked back at Ani. "…and what would that be?"

Ani's smirk grew. "I've always wondered if alcohol would have any effect on you."

"What?" Jill was shocked at a thought like that.

"Well, think about it," Ani said. Then she lowered her voice so she wouldn't be heard. "He used to be a robot, right?" she whispered. "Back then he didn't have any need to consume anything, let alone have any effect on him. Now that he's got skin and stuff, I want to know if he really could get drunk or even just buzzed. He was able to drink a strawberry shake, so the capablility of consuming drink isn't the issue."

Metal could only look at the two with a baffled look. Him, try alcohol? True, he wasn't sure if it would have an effect on him or not, but… it sounded strange, to say the least.

"...I'm not sure, Ani," Jill muttered.

"Hey, how bad could it be, right?" Ani said with a shrug. "Worst comes to worse, Jill will be sober enough to look after him!"

Metal hummed, as he tapped his chin in thought. "…hmm… I could give it a shot." he eventually nodded.

Jill sighed while Ani whipped out a shot glass and set it in front of Metal. Then she proceeded to pour a random alcoholic drink into it; all throughout this Ani was still grinning.

Metal blinked as the drink was poured in his glass, not fully knowing what would happen to him. Once Ani had finished pouring it, he gripped it carefully, and downed the glass in one gulp.

Big mistake.

The first thing he noticed was the taste. As he had only tasted a strawberry shake before this, he instantly concluded that the taste was… different, to say the least. He could feel a slight hint of bitterness on his tongue, and the mere taste made him wince a bit.

After the taste, he felt something else; namely, a tingling feeling in his fingertips, along with his mind becoming a lot clearer than before. It all rushed over him, likely due to him taking the entire glass in one shot. But was this feeling a good thing… or a bad thing? "…interesting…" he uttered, shaking his head and blinking a few times.

Jill only watched him. It looked like the alcohol already had some sort of impact on him... then she grew concerned when she saw Ani pour Metal another glass, "Ani, wait..."

"It'll be alright Jill," Ani said. "I know what I'm doing. Two shots won't hurt him."

"…you're sure about that?" Metal uttered, before looking down at the shot glass. "…well… I suppose…" With a nod, Metal gripped the glass, and downed its contents again.

Setting the glass down on the table, Metal cleared his throat a bit, keeping his eyes shut; for some reason, he was starting to feel slightly disoriented. After opening them, he felt that light-headed feeling flow over him again. "…hrm…" Still, aside from that, he seemed relatively fine.

"So, up for another one?" Ani asked curiously; also a little eager to see just how drunk she could get him.

Metal blinked, as he glanced at Ani. "…sure…" he nodded after a while.

Ani poured him one more, and Jill watched uneasily. With a nod, Metal downed this glass as well.

The moment he set the glass down, he could see that the alcohol was having an effect on him; his vision was starting to blur, and he felt more light-headed than before. "…strange..." he muttered, shaking his head.

"You feeling anything?" Ani asked.

"…yes…" Metal nodded, rubbing his head. "…I feel very light-headed… and sort of woozy… and I think I'm seeing double, now…" Then, he shook his head again. "…this is some strong stuff, isn't it?"

"...not the strongest..." Ani murmured suspiciously, averting her eyes.

"Ani..." Jill gave her a stern, and still worried look.

"Here, have another," Ani said, pouring in Metal's fourth shot quickly. Obviously she was not yet satisfied with the results of this little 'experiment.'

"…if you insist…" Metal muttered, giving Ani a small look, before downing that glass as well. After that, both of them could see that Metal had a hard time sitting straight, as he was slowly wavering whilst sitting on the stool. Still, he didn't seem to become too adversely affected yet.

"Okay, I swear that this one will be the last one," Ani said. Five shots aught to be good enough to see the drastic effects it would have on Metal, she thought, and so she poured his final shot while Jill watched Metal cautiously.

With a mild nod, Metal simply grabbed the glass, downed it, and set it on the counter. Though he was still wobbling a bit, he was silent.

"...well?" Ani grew impatient. "How do you feel now?"

"…I…" Metal uttered, before looking at Ani with a smirk. "…feel great! I dunno why, but I feel jusht like a new pershon!"

Jill's and Ani's jaws dropped.

While Jill continued to stare at Metal in disbelief, Ani grew a smirk.

"…what, did shomethin' happen to the mood, all of a shudden?" Metal chuckled. "No need to shtay shilent, you two!"

"...oh dear..." Jill murmured under her breath, while Ani just burst into laughter.

"Shee, now that'sh more like it!" Metal laughed along with Ani. "How'sh about another shot, Ani?"

Jill didn't like the sound of that, "Uh, I think-"

"Okay!" Ani didn't give Jill any chance to oppose, pouring Metal shot number six.

"Ah, much obliged!" Metal laughed, downing that shot fairly quickly as well. "Hoo… man, thish shtuff ish… it'sh great, I tellsh ya!"

"It sure is," Ani chuckled. She only wished that Snap was here so that she could get photos of these and hold this against Metal.

Laughing, Metal couldn't help but place a hand on Jill's shoulder. "You know, Jill… you shou… should defini…" Now it got to a point where he was almost unable to finish his own sentences. "…should try shome of thish!"

"Uh, I don't think it would be a good idea," Jill uttered, smiling nervously. "After all, someone needs to take you home after this...right?"

"Eh? Goin' home?" Metal uttered, before laughing. "We've got the whole night on our own, sho there'sh no rush there!"

Seeing BOTH Metal and Jill drunk? Ani just thought it was mind blowing. "C'mon Jill!" she pestered excitedly.

Jill looked between the two of them. "...I...don't know."

"Hey, I promise I won't let you get as drunk as he is," Ani laughed. "What d'ya say, Jill?"

Jill sighed. "...alright...but one or two okay?"

"Sure," Ani placed a poured shot in front of Jill and she took it, wincing at the bitterness afterwards.

"Shee, it'sh not that bad, onshe you get ushed to the…" Metal began, but again, found himself stumbling over his words. "…the… t-tashte! Onshe you get ushed to that, it'sh… kinda nishe!"

"Yeah, it's kinda nice," Ani repeated mockingly, teasing Jill.

Jill sighed again. She wasn't sure if this really was a good idea, but the alcohol she had already tempted her to take another shot. Then she let out a deep breath after she set the glass down. "Well, I guess I need to unwind anyway..." she muttered.

"Here Metal!" Ani exclaimed, giving him a shot as well.

"Thanksh!" Metal chuckled, taking that shot pretty quickly too. "Man… I jusht can't ghet enough o'thish shtuff…" he murmured, quickly shaking his head.

Ani snickered while watching Metal act so deliriously. Jill just shook her head, wondering what Ani found so funny about this.

Somebody suddenly leaned on the counter at Jill's side, and she turned quickly.

"Hey baby," chuckled a customer that was in the pub; he was a dark blue falcon with black shades over his eyes and a leather coat. He lowered his black shades to eye Jill with interest. "I'm a newcomer here, and I couldn't help but notice you."

Jill turned away from him uneasily.

"Hey now, don't be shy," he chuckled. "I won't bite'cha...unless you'd like me to."

Ani rolled her eyes. Yet again, some stupid idiot trying to hit on Jill.

"…hey, 'shcushe me…" Seeing that falcon trying to move in on Jill, Metal stood up from his seat, shakily, whilst looking back at the falcon. "…but I don't think she wantsh to talk to ya."

"Who're you supposed to be?" The falcon asked. "Her boyfriend?"

Jill blushed wildly when he said that, and Ani blinked while looking at Jill's reaction.

"Hey, ash a matter o'factsh…" Metal uttered, though before he could finish his sentence, he stumbled forward; the alcohol throwing his balance off considerably.

Ani's eyes widened at Metal.

"Look at you," the falcon chuckled. "I highly doubt you could take me if you wanted to stop me. Besides, I'm not doing any harm. I'm just talking to her." Then he glanced down and winked at Jill. "Isn't that right?"

Jill looked away. She wasn't sure if she was intoxicated enough to be drawn into what this guy was telling her, and the best thing she could do was try to ignore him. While trying to ignore him, she took another shot to occupy herself, which probably wasn't the smartest idea.

"…oh, you think I can't shtop you, ish that right?" Metal chuckled; though stumbling just a bit, he retained a cocky smirk. "…why don't you try and shee if that'sh the cashe?"

Jill shot Metal another nervous look. "Metal, don't..."

"Alright then," the falcon said, taking off his leather jacket and setting it on a nearby chair, showing that he had been wearing a white muscle shirt underneath, showing a very capable build.

Jill couldn't help but look. Alcohol had affected her common sense by now.

Metal simply smirked, motioning for the falcon to come at him. "…come and get it."

"Okay, but you asked for it," And the falcon threw his fist at Metal.

However, the fist didn't even connect, as Metal suddenly vanished from sight. "…you know, you sha-should work on your shwing, there." he chuckled, as he now suddenly stood behind the falcon. "I've sheen shlugsh who could attack fashter than you could."

"What?" The falcon spun around, taken aback by Metal's unreal speed. He wasn't the only one either; Ani, Jill, and just about most of the others in the bar were surprised at this. "...hmph," the falcon decided to punch him again; this time trying to be quicker about it.

Again, however, he ended up striking nothing, as Metal suddenly vanished and reappeared behind the falcon again. "Maybe it ishn't the shwing… maybe it'sh the aim." he said in a pretty confident tone, even though he was absolutely wasted. "How about you give it another shot?"

The falcon grit his teeth, irritated, and threw yet another punch at Metal.

And again, for the third time, he missed, as Metal reappeared behind him, now facing away from the falcon. "How'sh about I teach you how to throw a punsh, eh?" he chuckled, before quickly, and eerily precisely, backhanding the falcon on the back of his head.

The falcon tripped forward by that, whirling back around while getting pretty mad with Metal.

Jill finished with another shot. "If you want my advice..." she paused a minute to cope with dizziness. "...I'd walk away now while you still can."

"I'm not letting a drunk push me around, so shut up!" the falcon yelled at Jill.

"Maybe you should try shutting up…" Metal uttered, approaching the falcon. "…sho you could focush better!" Then, with another chuckle, Metal aimed a fierce punch right at the falcon's face. The falcon was sent upon a table, knocking it and whatever dishes were on top of it over, moaning. That hurt. Metal chuckled, as he stumbled a bit again. "…don't tell me you're done, already?"

When the falcon got up, he dusted himself off. "All I was doing was hitting on a girl, sheesh," he grumbled, taking his jacket back off of the chair. "I didn't know she was yours..."

"Hey, you thought I couldn't shtop you from doing that…" Metal chuckled, waggling a finger at the falcon. "…and I proved you wrong."

"Yeah, you did," the falcon grumbled after he put on his coat. "At least I'm mature enough to admit that. I'm outta here," and the falcon left out the door.

"…and that takesh care of that." Metal chuckled, before he sat down on his stool, taking a deep breath. "Hee… feelin' woozhy…"

Ani looked back and forth between Metal and Jill. "...alright, when did this happen?" she asked Jill, folding her arms.

"When did what happen?" Jill asked without a clue of what she was talking about.

Ani looked awkward. "...are you and Metal really...you know...together?"

"Yep."

That answer startled Ani, "Since when?"

"Since I got my voice back," Jill answered nonchalantly; she wasn't nervous or anything, which meant that the alcohol was succeeding in relaxing her a lot.

Ani stared at her. Not that it was unlikely; Metal and Jill were close, and if Jill had moved on from Brick, then maybe it was possible, but that still shocked her. How would that work anyway? Ani then cursed herself for thinking something like that, trying to remove disturbing images from her head.

Metal simply looked up at Ani with a slurry look. "…shomethin' on your mind?" he managed to utter.

"Nothing!" she answered back defensively.

"Chill Ani," Jill said after her fifth shot. Then she hiccuped.

"Yeah; you don't need to be sho tenshe…" Metal murmured. "…shay, can I get another round?"

"...I think you two had enough alcohol," Ani muttered nervously.

"Spoil...sport," Jill uttered.

"Aaw, don't be like that, Ani…" Metal managed to utter.

"What's the matter anyway?" Jill continued, swooning a bit.

"Nothing's wrong," Ani said. "It's just that...you and Metal?"

"What? You don't like us being together?" Jill supposed.

"No! No, it's not like that!" Ani tried to reassure, chuckling uneasily.

"Well, there'sh gotsh to be shomething, right?" Metal supposed, tilting his head a bit.

"It's just...weird," Ani said. "How would you guys...?" she didn't even want to ask.

"How would we...what?" Jill questioned.

"Never mind; just, never mind," Ani backed out as much as she could.

"…well, now you've made ush curioush, sho now we'll be wondering about what you meant for a while." Metal noted.

"...yeah...and I think I've been scarred..." Ani murmured under her breath so no one could hear her. "Besides, you two should at least go home now before Jill gets too drunk to take you both home."

"Already?" whined Jill, just so happening to throw her arms around Metal and slump a bit, hanging on him. "But we just got here..."

"Come on; be a pal, Ani…" Metal whined as well, tilting his head a bit.

Ani started to regret this, or at least letting Jill drink. She was the rational one out of this, but now she was nearly half as wasted as Metal was. Was it possible to be even more destroyed? While she was afraid, she was also quite curious to see if this was so. "...well...if we let you guys stay in one of the rooms here," she supposed, pouring the two of them shots.

"Yay," Jill cheered with a giggle, chugging down her shot.

* * *

After quite a while, the pub was finally starting to empty out, as the ones in the bar were preparing to head home… that is, except for Jill and Metal, both of them even more intoxicated than before.

"Alright, c'mon you two," Ani said, taking them by the shoulders. "You're WAY too drunk to even barely walk, let alone go home by yourselves. You're staying here tonight."

"Wooo..." Jill giggled uncontrollably, clumsily trying to regain her balance by the sudden tug from Ani. The same went to Metal, who could only chuckle whilst trying to regain his balance.

Ani took them through the door to the back rooms down the hall, and opened a door to a random bedroom, shoving them in. "Good night!" then she shut the door right behind them, too afraid to even stick around to find out what else was going to happen with them.

"…wonder what'sh got her shpooked…" Metal uttered, as he glanced back at the door for a little while.

Jill shrugged, and apparently the movement of her hands threw her off balance, falling onto the floor with her laughing at her clumsiness. Metal couldn't help but chuckle at this, as he tried getting Jill on her feet; however, with his own lack of balance, it eventually ended up with both of them falling right back down. Jill laughed so hard at this.

Then she stopped when she looked over at Metal and he grew to look right back at her to see her smiling at him. Seeing that, Metal couldn't help but smile back at her.

That's when Jill leaned in and kissed him on the lips. She just sort of went for it, due to what the alcohol had done to her thinking. Had he not been so wasted, Metal would have been surprised by this; instead, he graciously kissed her back. Jill put her arms around his neck while inserting her tongue into his mouth. Metal, too, wrapped his arms around Jill to pull her closer, letting their tongues clash against each other. Jill was burning, partly because of the effects of the alcohol and partly because of what was going on.

Somehow, she had enough balance to slowly pull them onto their feet, but when she took them toward the bed, she tripped backwards onto it, with Metal falling on top of her.

"Whoops," she giggled.

Metal chuckled as well, before he gave Jill a kiss.

* * *

***CENSORED CONTENT***

**I think this is much easier than what I did before...I'll have to thank Callous for that idea.**

**Oh yeah...she's not available at the moment XD  
**

**

* * *

**

The heat finally sizzled out, and Jill's legs slid back down to the bed while both her heart and her breathing calmed down. As he calmed himself as well, Metal eventually pulled away and laid down next to Jill, taking a few breaths to calm himself further. Jill turned her head to him, eyes closed, feeling so tired that she could barely remain conscious.

She managed to utter out a few words in her last conscious state of mind.

"...I...love you...Metal."

Metal, too, felt his mind slipping into unconsciousness, though he caught Jill's words. Before he slipped into slumber, he managed to utter words of his own.

"…I… love you too… Jill."

* * *

**There you go. It's a long chapter, but hey, what else is new?**

**Next Chapter will be with the "Clubhouse Pirates!" :D  
**


	2. The Clubhouse Pirates  Day One

**_This particular chapter just got so long because of each day, so the days of the Clubhouse Pirates got divided into one day per chapter. I think I should have done that with Metal and Jill's Chapter, no? ^^;_**

**_

* * *

_**_**Day One**_

_**

* * *

**_

"Woo! Tournament, here we come!"

"Gee Striker, calm down," Milo mumbled, watching his friend, the black bear, prancing around like some kind of proud stallion. He knew that Striker always got so excited about the littlest things...

Okay, Milo had to admit that the tournament was a pretty big thing. It wasn't such a big deal to him though; he didn't plan entering into the tournament. He was never really a fighter to begin with anyway. With three days to train, he knew that their plans would be filled with a variety of many things, and that was what Milo seemed to dread this morning.

"Aw, don't bother him Milo," Ani giggled. "No need to spoil his positive attitude."

"Ooh, this is gonna be so cool!" Tails Doll laughed. "Striker, how do you plan on training?"

That stopped Striker from his prancing around, and he was silent. "...you know, I don't know," he said, scratching his head.

Milo rolled his eyes, while Joy giggled at this from where she sat on Whisker's shoulder.

"…_but you've got to know!" _Tails Doll chimed in, fluttering around the bear.

"I'll think of something," Striker assured. "I was kinda hoping that Jack would be here with us, but he went off doing...uh, whatever he needed to do today."

"...yeah, that's right," Milo murmured. It was probably to go see that monster again...

"Yeah, training would be cool if Jack went all kung-fu on us!" Striker laughed, and Milo smacked his forehead in his disbelief at his friend's humor.

"You still have me, remember?" Ani grumbled with a raised hand. "You know? The girl with telekinesis?"

"An' whatere happened t' yer captain?" Whisker hummed, as he folded his arms. "What, be I chopped liver, now?"

"No! Of course not, Captian!" Striker assured with an uneasy chuckle.

"_Well, in any case, let's go to the ship!" _Tails Doll laughed, as he fluttered over to Joy. _"Training time!"_ he sang.

"Yeah!" Striker cheered, running off.

"STRIKER!" Milo called, and the bear stopped short. "You're going the wrong way. The ship's over there," and he pointed in a completely different direction then the bear was going.

"Oh...right. I knew that," and Striker went off to where Milo pointed, with Ani and Joy giggling like crazy. Even Tails Doll and Whisker couldn't help but chuckle at this, as they began leading the others after Striker.

"That bear, I swear," Milo murmured as they walked.

Joy giggled when she heard him, "You rhymed!"

"_He rhymed on a dime!"_ Tails Doll laughed.

"Now ye`re pushin' 't." Whisker noted dryly.

As Striker ran, however, he suddenly bumped into a pretty large figure, which remained immobile when Striker was knocked to the ground. "…now who do we have here?" the stranger hummed, looking down at the small bear.

Striker quickly scrambled to his feet, while the others caught up, and they all looked at this stranger. Joy gasped at the sight of this stranger, and tried to hide behind Whisker's giant pirate hat.

"...I'm, uh, Striker sir," the bear answered. "Who're you?"

"…oh, how rude of me," the stranger chuckled, taking a bite out of a leg of ham he held. "Call me Spiel."

Ani set her hands on her hips. "What do you want, Spiel?" she grumbled; since she already knew who this was, unlike her friends.

"Whoa, there; no need to be hostile, Ani." Spiel chuckled, waving his hands defensively at her. "I was taking a morning stroll, thinking of entering this tournament King's hosting, when little Striker here bumps into me."

Milo looked this stranger over. His spirit was...strange. He couldn't really determine if this was a hostile one or a friendly one, since his aura bounced back and forth between the two. Obviously, he was one to be wary of.

"...so ye jus' happened t' pass by?" Whisker noted, as he tilted his head.

"Right; just happened to pass by." Spiel chuckled. "Where are you all headed, then?"

"...we're goin' to a piwate ship," Joy answered hesitantly.

"A pirate ship?" Spiel chuckled. "Well, let's hope that you don't start pillaging the island, then."

"_Pillaging? Why would we do that?" _Tails Doll uttered in a puzzled tone, though this only made Spiel laugh even harder.

"Let me guess; you're going there to train?" Spiel supposed, before he took another bite out of his meal.

"Yep," Milo answered

"How interesting." Spiel chuckled. "But you should still be careful when the tournament rolls around; training or no training, there's going to be a lot of strong people there. You could get hurt, and that'd be bad."

"We can handle ourselves," Striker said confidently. "We've been through worse!"

"Oh, really now?" Spiel chuckled, before he finished his leg of ham. "…well, I might as well give you a few pointers. Since I'm gonna be in the tournament, too, why don't we have a test of strength?"

"…_test of strength?"_ Tails Doll uttered.

"It's really basic." Spiel chuckled. "One of you attacks me three times, and then I do the same."

"Alright, I'll give it a shot!" Striker pulled out his aluminum bat in the blink of an eye with his confident grin.

Ani shook her head.

"…suit yourself." Spiel chuckled, as he looked down at Striker. "Give me your best shot!"

Striker ran at Spiel with bat in hand, and took a swing at his large gut. The moment the bat made contact with his gut, however, it instantly stopped; Spiel's thick skin absorbed the blow, and the pig didn't even flinch at this attack. "…is that it?" he chuckled.

"...what?" Striker was certainly surprised, and he yanked his bat away to swing again at Spiel's side.

Still, the same result came about; Spiel didn't even seem to register that he had been hit. "…that's two shots." he chuckled.

Striker was a little discouraged by this, but not enough to stop. "Striker, wait!" Milo tried to stop Striker, but he was too late; Striker tried to stab Spiel with the bat this time in his gut, hoping to see if it had any effect.

However, this proved to be the least effective attack of the bunch; when he tried stabbing Spiel's gut, he merely bounced right off the pig's thick skin. "…and that's your third." he chuckled, looking down at Striker. "Now, it's show time." With a laugh, Spiel reeled his fist back at threw a punch right at Striker… but when it connected, it didn't even make Striker flinch. The punch had simply been too weak to even damage the bear.

"...what was that?" Striker laughed; expecting a hard blow, but getting that instead.

"What, it didn't hurt?" Spiel laughed as well. "How about this, then?" Then, he aimed another punch at Striker, but if it was possible, it felt even weaker than the one before it. "Did that hurt?"

"I didn't feel a thing!" Striker taunted.

Milo didn't like what was going on. _...he's not even trying_, he thought. But he had a bad feeling that Spiel's third attempt would surprise everyone.

"Oh, didn't feel a thing?" Spiel laughed. "Well, how about this?" In that instant, he threw another punch, though this time, he deliberately missed hitting Striker, and struck the ground. The moment his fist made contact with the ground, however, it instantly cracked, before caving into a small crater, as a sudden gust of wind erupted from the sheer power behind this third punch.

"...eep..." Striker croaked, stepping away from Spiel.

"…if that punch had hit ya… you would've died." Spiel chuckled, as he straightened himself, looking down at Striker. "The way I see it, you're gonna need more than three days of training if you wanna hurt me with that puny swing of yours, Striker… and even more than that, unless you have a death wish."

Striker grit his teeth.

Ani got pretty mad too. "You know, I don't appreciate you scaring my friend like that, Spiel," she growled. "You have no idea what things we've faced and beaten, so I wouldn't call Striker puny."

_Not Ani too... _Milo thought in disdain, sighing.

"Oh, you've all beaten stronger foes, huh?" Spiel laughed, directing his gaze at Ani. "But this tournament doesn't allow for groups to fight together, you know. If he can't get strong enough to make me bleed, what makes you think he'll get through this on his own?

"Alright, now ye`re steppin' ou' o' line!" Whisker growled, taking a step forward.

"Am I? I'm just pointing out the facts." Spiel chuckled. "You kids want my advice? Give up, and go play your pirate games; I wouldn't want to see you get hurt."

"...you want MY advice?" Ani growled, holding out her hands.

Milo knew exactly what she was going to do. _Uh-oh..._

"Keep your mouth shut, and don't be so quick to judge." All of a sudden, Spiel somehow found that he felt much, much lighter. Then he looked down, and saw his feet lift off the ground miraculously.

"…hm?" Humming, Spiel looked down at this with a mildly surprised look, before chuckling. "…well, now… I didn't know that you had this kinda power, Ani…" Then, he looked at the husky-wolf with a wide grin. "…it should be perfect for protecting little Striker, eh?"

Ani made no comment to what he said, raising her arms to bring Spiel up higher. "First hit," she said, and dropped her arms. Spiel crashed right into the ground, and the sheer velocity bore a crater into the ground similar to the one Spiel punched in.

Even so, he didn't seem too surprised by it, as when she stopped, he got to his feet, grinning at her. "…next?" he chuckled.

Spiel was lifted off the ground again, this time brought up higher than last time. "Second hit." And dropped him, with the blow harder than last time.

Still, Spiel only laughed this off, as he got back on his feet, looking at Ani with a wild grin. "…just remember; when you've dealt this last blow… it's my turn, Ani." he said in both a murderous and amused tone.

Ani snarled, raising Spiel into the air again but this time, even HIGHER than before; to a point where Spiel was hard to see. "Third hit!" She didn't just let him drop this time; she threw the fat pig down to the ground, slamming him into that crater and making it twice as deep. She was thoroughly mad at him.

"_WHOA, ANI!" _Tails Doll yelped in panic, as the massive impact created a massive cloud of dust, fully covering the crater and Spiel.

For a short while, it seemed like that had done it, as no sound emerged from the crater just yet. "…not bad…" At that point, when the dust finally cleared, the group saw that Spiel was back on his feet, looking at Ani with a wild grin; as it turned out, the impact had actually drawn blood from Spiel, as a thin line of the red liquid ran down from his forehead, across one of his eyes. "…you made me bleed."

But Ani wanted to do so much more. She only growled more when she saw that it only made him bleed a little.

"...hey...calm down Ani," Milo uttered, skittish at her rage. Seems like that hadn't changed over the years...

"…well, that's three hits." Spiel chuckled, slowly walking towards Ani. "Now, it wouldn't be fair if I didn't get to do the same, now, would it?" he chuckled, reeling his fist back with that same, wide grin. "One." Then, he threw the punch right at Ani's gut; this time, however, it wasn't the weak kind of punch Striker had been hit with, as this one had actual force behind it. Ani yelped while it sent her backwards.

"Ani!" Striker tried to run for her, but Milo and Whisker grabbed him. Ani was tough; she could take this. Plus, it wouldn't be smart for Striker to get hit by one of those.

Ani got back to her feet, pretending like it didn't hurt. Spiel didn't seem to mind if she was hurt or not, as he simply picked her up by her collar, grinning at her. "Two." Then, without any remorse, he violently slammed her right into the ground, carving yet another crater underneath her. Ani let out a painful cry, unable to move her body because she was in such pain.

"No! STOP IT!" begged Striker, who tried to squirm out of Milo and Whisker's hold. He finally did, and so he ran for Spiel and Ani.

"_Wait, Striker, don't!"_ Tails Doll called, though his pleas fell on deaf ears.

Raising his fist again, Spiel had an absolutely terrifying grin plastered all over his face. "Three." he uttered, before throwing the punch right down at Ani. That's when Striker jumped right in, taking that punch in his gut instead of letting it hit Ani. Seeing Striker take the blow, Spiel blinked. "…hn?"

Striker was slammed right into the ground, this time, creating a crater even bigger than the one Ani had created earlier, as a massive blanket of dust erupted around the three, covering them fully from view.

"Strikoh!" Joy cried out in fright.

It took a while for the dust to clear out, but eventually, it did, showing Spiel standing over both Striker and Ani, looking down at the bear with a mild frown. "…tsch…"

"...S-Striker?" Ani uttered, turning over to look at him. The bear lay there motionless and silent. Ani was able to move again and she tried to shake him. "Striker?" He didn't budge.

"…_he can't be…"_ Tails Doll uttered, as he looked at this scene in absolute horror.

"...ye..." Whisker snarled, as he glared at Spiel, before he carefully placed Joy down on the ground. "...DAMN YE!" he roared, quickly rushing right at the pig, before aiming a massive blow right in the pig's face.

However, even with such a powerful blow, Spiel didn't flinch at all; merely looking down at Striker with that small frown. "…what do you know…" he muttered.

"Strikoh!" Joy rushed over to him and Ani, and tried to help Ani shake him.

Moments after Joy set her hands on him, Striker's eyes popped open and he let out a horrible cough, groaning in the agony he was in.

Milo knew he wasn't dead, but he was certainly relieved to see that Striker was okay after a hit like that.

"…you know, kid…" Spiel muttered, looking down at Striker. "…you could've gotten yourself killed, taking that blow… and knowing that, you still leaped in to protect Ani."

"...A good friend of mine...taught me..." Striker tried to say, while writhing in his terrible pain. "...part of being strong...is...to show you're not afraid...of getting hurt...to protect the people you care about..." Milo looked right at Striker then, feeling like what he said really had an impact on him.

He knew that Striker was talking about Brick there.

After he said that, Spiel closed his eyes, as if he contemplated his words. "…you've got some spirit, Striker." he said, before looking down at the bear with a grin. "Seems like I misjudged you."

Ani tried to help Striker sit up, and he cringed while holding his gut, grunting weakly.

"You gotsa be careful Ani," Joy muttered worriedly.

Both Tails Doll and Whisker looked down at Striker with some worry as well.

"…make sure that you grow stronger, Striker," Spiel chuckled, before he began walking off. "I'd hate to see you squander away such magnificent potential." he added, before he vanished.

"...squander it away, he says," Milo grumbled, watching him disappear.

Joy put her arms around Striker and hugged him. "You gots bad owie," she uttered sadly. "I wish I could make it feel bettoh."

Strangely enough, after she hugged him, Striker started to feel a little less pain, and he breathed a little more easily; giving the hug back to her. "That's okay..." Striker uttered, restraint in his voice. "...you already made me feel...a little better." Once Joy let go, Ani managed to help Striker rise to his feet.

"…_man… you really worried us, Striker."_ Tails Doll sighed, as he fluttered over to Joy, looking at the bear.

"...I think he was pretty serious when he said that would kill you," Milo muttered.

"Yeah, so?" Striker grumbled. "I couldn't let that happen to Ani, could I? OW!" Something bonked Striker on the head, and it turned out to be Ani's hand.

"Don't scare us like that!" Ani uttered shakily, trying to hide the fact she had been ready to cry, so she disguised it as anger. "Next time you do something that stupid, warn us!"

Striker protested, "But there really wasn't any time for warning! And is that the thanks I get for-" he was cut off again, when Ani grabbed him from behind and held him tightly. Striker could feel her shake a little, but she held back from crying.

She had lost loved ones before a very, very long time ago. She didn't want to lose Striker like that.

Striker eventually patted her arm.

"…_Ani…"_ Tails Doll uttered, as he looked at the two of them with a tilted head.

"It's okay Ani," Striker assured, and Ani let go, nodding.

"Yeah..." she murmured.

"…_um… maybe we should head for the ship, now?"_ Tails Doll suggested.

"Yeah, we should," Striker said, but when he took a step he flinched; still hurting.

"Here," Ani helped him walk on, with the others beginning to follow them.

Milo just looked at those two, and smiled. They were going to make an interesting pair, that's for sure. He secretly wondered how Striker was going to react if Ani wanted to take it further, and he kept snickers from escaping out.

There was also something else he started to wonder. Striker sure recovered from that devastating blow fairly well. Just why was that?

* * *

"…wonder when he'll be here…" On top of the mountain, right by the cave's mouth, were Charon and Oblivion, the former eagerly looking towards the path, waiting for Jack to arrive.

Oblivion chuckled to herself. It was so rare to see Charon in such a good mood, and so eager for their new friend to come. Not that she wasn't as excited for him to come as he was. "He should be here any minute now," she assured.

"I hope so." Charon hummed, closing his eyes. Just then, he heard some form of noise, and quickly opened his eyes.

"Hiiii!" Jack called, as he was running up the slope, carrying a backpack on his back. "Sorry that I'm late; I made us some food for today!" he added, waving at the two of them.

"Oh, you did?" Oblivion asked, smiling. "How nice of you, Jack."

"Really? Thanks!" Jack laughed, as he skidded to a halt in front of the two. "Man, I've got a lot of stories for today!"

"Sounds like fun." Charon chuckled, as he sat down, looking at Jack.

"What story are you going to start with, today?" Oblivion asked curiously, sitting next to Charon.

"Um…" Jack hummed, as he sat down, rubbing his chin in thought, before snapping his fingers. "I know! I could tell you about how Sonic and the Professor met Captain Whisker!"

"…Whisker?" Charon hummed. "Who's that?"

"He's a robot pirate captain!" Jack laughed. "He used to be a bad guy, but now, he's one of our friends!"

"Is that so?" It seems like a lot of people from the stories Jack told were friends of theirs.

"Yeah! You see, Sonic and the Professor were flying through the air, and then a storm came along, and caused them to crash at sea!" Jack began, once again moving about wildly.

"Really, now…" Charon uttered, instantly sucked into Jack's story.

"After a while, they met a raccoon called Marine, who helped them with building ships so they could get an awesome treasure!" Jack laughed.

Oblivion continued to listen attentively.

"So, after they built their first ship, they sailed about for a while, before finding a Chaos Emerald, guarded by this robot called Johnny!" Jack continued, clapping his hands together.

"The Chaos Emeralds again?" Charon hummed.

"I'll get to that." Jack nodded, smiling. "Then, the group went into a cave, and there they found Captain Whisker! Back then, he was going to do something really nasty to Marine if she got in his way…"

"…something nasty?" Charon uttered.

"Yeah…" Jack nodded. "…he was gonna tickle her! Isn't that the worst thing?"

Oblivion giggled; Jack was still as innocent as always. "Oh...um, yes, that's terrible," she said, playing along.

"And then he was gonna pour ice cubes on her toes!" Jack continued, shuddering at the thought. "That's low, isn't it?"

"Very low." Charon nodded with a mild chuckle.

"So, after they met, Sonic, the Professor, Marine, Whisker and Johnny would be fighting each other to find the awesome treasure for quite some time!" Jack continued. "Later, they even met Princess Blaze again!"

"Well now, I'm sure it was nice to see her again," Oblivion chuckled.

"…wait a minute…" Charon uttered, tilting his head. "I thought that Blaze went back to her own dimension again?"

"Well, here's the reason." Jack said with a nod. "You remember that storm? Well, it was actually merging Mobius with the Nameless Zone! And Blaze thought that using that treasure, she could stop the merger, before things got out of hand!"

"…that explains the Chaos Emeralds, I suppose…" Charon nodded.

"So later still, the four of them finally cornered Whisker, and he and Johnny put up a massive fight! BAM! BOOM! KAZAM!" Jack called, once more waving his hands dramatically for each sound effect he produced.

Oblivion could only imagine the battle that ensued by Jack's 'accurate' sound effects.

"It took a while, but eventually, Sonic and Blaze beat them!" Jack called. "Then Whisker snatched away Marine, who had managed to get the treasure, and he ran off with her! But before he could tickle Marine, Sonic, Blaze and the Professor tricked him into letting her go!"

"…then what happened?" Charon uttered.

"Then Whisker got into a HUGE battleship, and began shooting cannonballs EVERYWHERE!" Jack continued.

"Oh my," Oblivion chuckled.

"But even so, Sonic and Blaze beat him AGAIN!" Jack cheered. "He went flying, and the whole battleship exploded! IT WAS SO AWESOME!"

"…I'll say." Charon hummed. "So that's the end?"

"Not yet!" Jack shot in. "Because the ones who built Whisker revealed themselves to steal the treasure!"

"…and those were?" Charon blinked.

"It was Eggman and Eggman Nega again!" Jack called, waving his hands around.

"Those two?" Oblivion asked, blinking. "You mean, they were working together?"

"Yeah!" Jack nodded. "You see, they wanted that treasure so they could merge the two worlds together and rule over both of them, or get a lot of power so they could rule over the worlds!"

"…but Sonic and Blaze wouldn't allow it?" Charon chuckled.

"No, they wouldn't!" Jack nodded. "So they used the Chaos Emeralds and the treasure to go Super, and defeat Eggman and Nega!"

"That sounds pretty scary," Oblivion said. "Two worlds merging together..."

"Yeah… but it all worked out in the end!" Jack laughed. "The eggheads were driven off, and Sonic and the Professor left to go on new adventures!"

"…as expected of Sonic." Charon chuckled.

"What about Blaze and Marine?" Oblivion asked.

"They stayed behind in the Nameless Zone, in case Nega would do something stupid again." Jack said with a smile.

"…did they ever meet again?" Charon inquired.

"Oh, they met a few times, alright!" Jack said with a nod.

"Now how's that?" Oblivion grew more curious with Jack, as always.

"Well, Sonic and the Professor managed to find ways to visit them from time to time; some times, they'd go on adventures, and some times, they'd beat up Nega!"

"…now that is curious." Charon hummed. "I do wonder what eventually happened to those two, though…"

"…well, apparently, Blaze died of some kind of illness when she had gotten older, and they built a temple to honor her memory, and everything!" Jack said. "I'm not sure if Marine's still alive or not… but if the Professor is, then she's probably alive, too."

"What about Nega?" Oblivion asked again.

"Dunno." Jack shrugged. "I guess he died, too, but no one I knew had any idea of what happened to him."

"...no one you knew?" Oblivion tilted her head at Jack. "It almost sounds like you've been to the Nameless Zone yourself, Jack."

"That's probably because I was born there." Jack said with a smile.

"…you were… born there?" Charon uttered, as he tilted his head in surprise. "…how… does that work?"

"..yeah, how did you come here to Mobius?" Oblivion added.

"…um… how did that happen, again…?" Jack hummed, tapping his chin. "…well… I had just left home to try my hand at being a traveling musician, when I met Striker and Milo," he began. "After I got my harmonica customized, the three of us set out to sea to see if we couldn't find any adventures… but then a storm hit us, and when we woke up, the boat was smashed, and we were lying on the shore of the Mystic Ruins."

"…you don't suppose that the scepter caused this?" Charon hummed.

"I don't know…" Jack mused, as he let out a small sigh. "…but we've been here for five years, so I suppose there's no harm done!" he eventually said, smiling again.

"What did you do after you washed ashore to Mystic Ruins?" Oblivion asked curiously, wondering if there was a little more to that story.

"…well, we met up with the Professor, and he let us stay at his place for a while." Jack hummed. "We also got to meet Jill, Brick and Ani, there."

"…so you all met thanks to Professor Tails…" Charon hummed.

"…after a while, the Professor showed us that we could build a treehouse further in the jungle, and we finished it after a while!" Jack laughed. "So we started living there!"

Oblivion smiled again, "Living in a treehouse sounds pretty fun."

"It's a lot of fun! You guys should come visit, some time!" Jack laughed.

This surprised Charon, who looked at Jack with widened eyes. "…visit… your treehouse?"

"Yeah! I'm sure you two would really like it, there!" Jack nodded, that innocent smile still present on him.

Oblivion giggled. "I'd like that...although I'm not sure if we'll get the chance to do that anytime soon..." With everything that was going on, Oblivion wondered if her and Charon were ever going to have any freedom to do things like that.

"…you know what we could do?" Jack hummed, as he looked up at the sky with a smile. "Once that tournament ends, and when we get ready to leave for home… you guys can be secret stowaways, and come with us to the Clubhouse!"

Charon could only blink, as he looked at Jack with a puzzled look. "…stowaways…?"

"I'm sure it's gotta be more fun than having to be secretly up here without being able to fly around…" Jack hummed. "…and I'm also sure that no one at the Clubhouse would mind you two flying around there!" he added with a huge smile.

"...I don't know..." Oblivion murmured. It sounded really good to her; if his friends were like Jack, then they would overlook Charon's ferocious appearance and grow to like him. They wouldn't have to be tied into all of the problems going on here at Safe Haven, and if Charon at least disappeared from the island, no one would really go looking for him. It sounded pretty good...

...but again, this wasn't a decision to make in a split second. It took thought.

"…don't worry; I said after the tournament." Jack said with a smile, placing his hands on Charon and Oblivion. "It'll start and end in three days from now, so if you need time to think, you've got time."

"…Jack…" Charon uttered, as he let out a low growl, closing his eyes. "…thank you…"

"…don't mention it." Jack said with a smile. "Friends help each other out, right?"

"...right," Oblivion said, smiling again. "And you are a very good friend indeed, Jack."

"…really?" Jack said with a smile. "Heh… no problem!"

* * *

"_There it is!" _At this point, the Clubhouse Pirates finally made it to the docks, where their pirate ship was still anchored. Flamenco and Lin weren't anywhere in sight at the moment, so they figured that they were still asleep. _"Alright; what'll we do first?" _Tails Doll hummed, fluttering around Joy and Whisker.

"Let's at least get Striker to somewhere where he can rest," said Milo.

"Right; we`ll get th' lad's t' his cabin." Whisker hummed, as he glanced at Striker. "Unless ye`d want t' rest in th' infirmary?"

"_Let's get him on the ship, first." _Tails Doll commented, as the group began moving onboard the pirate ship.

"…just put me in my cabin," Striker said, wincing as he got on board the ship. "I'll be fine."

"Aye." Whisker nodded, as he led the group further into the ship, before they eventually reached Striker's cabin. Once they got there, Whisker opened the door, letting Ani lead Striker over to his bed.

Striker breathed more easily once he was lying down on his bed. Ani looked at him worriedly. "Are you going to be okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, don't worry," Striker said, smiling. "You go ahead and have fun with everybody else."

Ani hesitated, looking at him. "…if you say so," she murmured, turning around and closing the door, leaving Striker alone in his room.

"…_he'll come around, Ani." _Tails Doll said in an encouraging tone, fluttering up to her. _"Don't worry about that."_

"…yeah," Ani said, trying to smile.

"Let's go play piwate!" Joy pestered, taking her by the hand.

"_Yeah, let's go!" _Tails Doll called, fluttering around both Ani and Joy.

Whisker chuckled, before he glanced at Milo. "What about ye, Milo?" he inquired. "Aren`t ye gonna play wi' them, too?"

"Well, someone's got to fill in for Jack, right?" Milo supposed.

"Alright; ye guys be havin' fun, now!" Whisker chuckled, as he began walking off.

"_Hm? Where are you going?"_ Tails Doll called.

"I`ll be on lookout fer a bit, so if ye need me, I`ll be by th' helm!" Whisker replied, as he left the others in the hall.

"So how exactly should we play pirate, Joy?" Milo asked.

"Well, piwates gotsa find treashure, right?" Joy said. "So we gotta find some treashure on the piwate ship! And we gotsa have swords, an' piwate hats, an we gotsa go "ARR!"

Ani giggled.

"_Pirate hats!"_ Tails Doll cheered. _"I think we got some in the storage room! Let's go!"_ he called, fluttering excitedly around the group.

"Right, this way," Milo said, taking Joy's hand and leading her, Ani and Tails Doll out of the hallway. Once they stepped out on deck, Tails Doll happened to glance towards the docks, when he spotted someone simply looking out at the horizon.

"…_guys, look over there!" _he called, pointing in that direction.

As it turned out, sitting on the shore by the docks was Lock, who simply looked out towards the sea, without saying a word.

"It's Lock!" Joy observed.

"Wonder what he's doing sitting there like that," Ani murmured, and right after she saw Joy run off the ship onto the dock. "Joy, wait!"

Joy sped ahead of Ani running after her, and shortly reached Lock on the beach. "Hi Lock!" she greeted cheerfully.

Humming, Lock glanced at Joy, regarding a nod to her. "Hello, Joy." he said, before glancing back towards the sea. "I see you're up and running."

"M-hm!" Joy said, and that's when Ani made it to her.

"Wow, for a little one, you run pretty quick," she huffed while catching her breath.

"You can say that again!" Tails Doll noted, as he fluttered after Ani as well.

"…so, what are you all doing out here?" Lock mused.

"Playing piwate!" Joy giggled.

"We kinda wondered the same about you," Ani muttered. "I mean, you sitting here like this..."

"…I'm just enjoying the horizon." Lock hummed. "It's always gratifying to simply behold what lies beyond…"

Tails Doll blinked, as he tilted his head. _"…that's pretty deep…"_ he hummed.

"…I suppose." Lock shrugged, as he looked up at the others. "So, playing pirates, huh?"

"Yep," Milo replied. "I suppose we're using it as an excuse to train for the tournament, although we can't seriously train since Striker's not in the best condition."

"…sorry to hear that." Lock hummed, as he stood up. "…but you're entering the tournament, huh? Interesting; I was planning on joining that, myself."

"_Really?" _Tails Doll uttered in surprise, as Lock merely nodded to confirm this.

"…perhaps you could use someone else to play pirate with you?" Lock eventually hummed, turning to face the group.

"You? Play pirate with us?" Ani asked in astonishment. It just didn't seem like Lock would be interested playing a childish game.

"Ooooh! That'd be losta fun!" Joy hopped up and down in glee.

"Of course." Lock chuckled. "You can't be pirates if you don't have someone trying to bring you in."

"_Ooh, so you're gonna be some form of cop?"_ Tails Doll presumed. "_Well, we're tough pirates, so we can handle it!"_

Ani broke out into a mischievous grin. "You'll never take us alive, copper!"

"Oh geez..." Milo groaned in dread.

* * *

Oblivion looked over the sky in disdain. She could see the sun starting to set from the mountain top she, Charon and Jack were at, basking the sky in an orange and fading glow. "Looks like it's getting late..." she murmured.

"Aaw, already?" Jack uttered, before sighing. "Man, time flies when you're having fun…"

"…pity…" Charon muttered, letting out a sigh of his own.

Oblivion wondered if she should just let Jack go down the mountain by himself, or if Charon should give him a ride down. It was too bright, and Charon would risk being seen, but then if Jack went down by himself, he might run into Spiel. "Hm..."

"…but what do we do…?" Jack hummed. "I-"

"Ssh!" Suddenly, two of Charon's heads perked, before his third head looked at Oblivion. "Someone's coming."

Oblivion tried to cover a gasp that came from her. "We have to hide you!" she whispered to Jack.

"…what?" Jack uttered, looking at Oblivion with a puzzled look. "Why's-"

"Don't ask questions." Charon suddenly shot in, grabbing Jack so that he could cover his mouth. "We have to-" Then, his eyes suddenly widened. "…whoever's coming is running! We won't have time to hide him!"

"Put him behind us!" Oblivion said, standing next to Charon so that when she shoved Jack behind them, he was hidden by the two.

Even though Charon had said that their sudden guest was running, it felt like time itself ground to a halt, as they merely waited for whoever it was to be revealed, making sure not to utter a single sound. Finally, however, the man in question made it to the top, stopping.

"…I thought I heard some noise." Krieg uttered, as he looked right at the three. "Is something wrong?"

Oblivion was slightly relieved. As long as Krieg didn't hear Jack, then he was safe. "Nothing's wrong Charon," she said. "We were just talking..."

"…is that so?" Krieg hummed. "…well, Spiel just wanted me to check on you two; with the tournament, he was worried that someone would've decided on training up here."

"…was he really worried?" Charon muttered, casting a glance at the warthog.

"His words, not mine." Krieg shrugged.

"...We appreciate you checking on us," Oblivion said sincerely, keeping an eye on Jack behind them. "We're just fine."

"…I'm glad to hear that." Krieg nodded, as he glanced out towards the setting sun. "…I should give you two a fair warning, though; when the tournament begins, not one of Spiel's underlings will be able to watch over you, as they will be participating. And there could be someone who decided not to join it, and find their way up here."

"...right," Oblivion said, nodding. While she wasn't worried about Jack, Krieg could mean Diablo, Raider or Kiri.

"…just make sure to keep your guard up…" Krieg muttered, as he turned to walk away. "…and don't get hurt." he added, before beginning down the slope.

Once he was gone from sight, Charon sighed in relief, as he let go of Jack. "…that was close…" he muttered.

"...I just hope he didn't suspect anything," Oblivion said. "Krieg sure is keen, even if he's blind..."

"…he didn't seem to notice Jack, though…" Charon muttered, before letting out a sigh.

"…who was that guy?" Jack hummed after a short while.

"He's Spiel's right hand man," Oblivion told Jack.

"Ooh…" Jack hummed, as he nodded. "…so he's a bad guy?"

"No…" Charon hummed. "…he… seems different from Spiel…"

"...but even if he doesn't seem bad, we didn't want him to know about you," Oblivion said. "He reports anything to Spiel..." She took another look to assure herself Krieg was gone. "We need to get you down there..." she murmured.

"…but how…?" Charon muttered, as he let out a small growl.

"…maybe I could hide up here until it's safe to come down?" Jack suggested, looking at the two.

"I'm not sure about that…" Charon retorted, looking back at Jack. "Your friends could start to worry, if you didn't return…"

Oblivion looked over to Jack. "You came up here on your own...do you think you would be able to walk back down safely?"

"…I guess…" Jack muttered, as he scratched his head. "…but I only got up here, because there wasn't anyone by the path. If Krieg's down there, he could-"

"Krieg's blind." Charon shot in. "As long as Spiel isn't there, you should be fine."

"And if he was there, he would have come to check on us himself," Oblivion added. "I think you're alright."

"…really?" Jack hummed, as he looked at the two of them, before eventually nodding. "Alright; I'm going, then!" he said, before beginning to run down the path. "See you tomorrow!"

"…aren't you going to train for this tournament?" Charon inquired, as he tilted his head.

"Nah; fighting's not really my thing." Jack called, as he waved at them. "Later!" Then, he began disappearing down along the slope.

"...I really do hope he'll be alright," Oblivion muttered.

"…I'm sure he'll be fine." Charon hummed, as he closed his eyes. "I don't think he'd want us to worry about him…"

* * *

"-and I grabbed a ropey and swung from like bamillion feet high!" Joy was sitting on the bed in her's, Jill's and Metal's room, trying to tell them all about her adventure. "And I jumped right on toppa Lock and hit him with my sword; but it wasn't a real sword, it was just a toy sword, and I said 'Let my fwiends go!"

Jill giggled, "That's nice." Then she yawned tiredly. "C'mon Joy, its bedtime."

"Aw..." Joy moaned, as Jill tucked her into bed. Joy heard Metal chuckle, and then Jill sat beside her to stroke her hair. She couldn't do very much; her hands were bandaged up, and when Joy asked why, they only told her it was nothing. Joy continued to wonder about that.

Then she heard her mother sing to her.

It wasn't very long until Joy was out cold. The last thought that crossed her mind was how pretty her mother sounded when she sang. She sounded like she did in her dreams, but better.

* * *

**_Whew! These Chapters are gonna roll in like...like..._**

**_Agh, so brain dead. Can't think of simile.  
_**


	3. The Clubhouse Pirates  Day Two

_**Day Two**_

_**

* * *

**_

"…hey, Joy… wake up…" the small ewe would hear, as someone was gently shaking her to get her to wake up.

Joy mumbled, and then yawned, rubbing her eyes when she sat up. "Is it mornin'?" she asked.

"…yes; it's morning." Metal nodded, as he looked down at Joy. "Did you sleep well?"

"M-hm," Joy replied happily.

"Well, that's good to know," when Joy looked over, the first thing she noticed about Jill was that her hands weren't bandaged anymore.

"Hey Mama, you're all bettoh!" Joy said, smiling. That's when the 3 year old really noticed something about Jill; all of her scars were gone too. "Mama, you gots much bettoh!"

"...yeah..." Jill murmured, trying to smile, but even Joy could tell that she seemed a little sad.

"...what's wrong Mama?" Joy tilted her head at her mother.

Metal was silent, as he glanced over at Jill, wondering what she would say to Joy.

Jill eventually shook her head, smiling more. "Nothing's wrong, Joy." Then there was a knock on the door, and Jill looked up. "Come in."

"Joy's still here, right?" Ani laughed, bursting in, with Milo, Tails Doll and Whisker behind her.

"Ani!" Joy hopped right out of bed and ran to Ani, throwing her arms around her.

"_Someone's happy to see us!"_ Tails Doll laughed, as he fluttered around Ani and Joy.

"…you're going off to play, again?" Metal presumed with a chuckle.

"Ye betcha!" Whisker laughed, as he folded his arms.

"I feel kinda bad for pulling Joy away from Jill so much though," Ani chuckled.

Jill smiled. "It's not a problem. I appreciate you guys playing with her so much..."

Milo couldn't help but stare at Jill. Something was noticeable, that's for sure... and it took him just now to realize something; aside from still being somewhat too skinny, she was looking much better. Even her scars were completely gone...

...that sort of thing bewildered him. First, Striker recovered so quickly from that blow from Spiel, and now Jill was looking better? Scars didn't just disappear in a matter of days...

"...Milo, what's wrong?" Jill asked, growing a little nervous with the lion eying her like that.

"...what? Oh, nothing, sorry," Milo replied in embarrassment. "I think you're starting to look much better recently."

"That's awesome!" Tails Doll called, not noticing the bigger picture. "She's getting better!"

Jill smiled.

* * *

"So what're we gonna to today?" Joy asked excitedly, once they were outside.

"_We figured that we could go and play pirates again!" _Tails Doll laughed, perching himself on Joy's head. _"…too bad that Jack couldn't come today, either…"_

"Aaw, Jack's not here again?" Joy moaned in disappointment.

"Don't worry about it Joy," Ani said. "If it makes you feel any better, Striker's doing fine; he can walk around by himself again at least."

"That's good!" Joy said, brightening up. Then she plucked Tails Doll off her head and cuddled the plushie.

"...but I do wonder what`s keepin' Jack so busy that he canna spend time wi' us..." Whisker hummed, rubbing his head.

"_Well, no time to worry about that; we're gonna play pirates!" _Tails Doll laughed, as he looked at Ani. _"Think we can get Lock to play with us again?"_

"I hope so!" Ani said. "That sure was fun!"

"It wasn't all that fun," Milo groaned, rubbing his backside. "I'm still sore from when I was knocked over the ship..."

"It was just a little accident..." Ani grumbled.

"_No need to be grouchy over it!" _Tails Doll laughed. _"Let's just have fun!"_

Once the group reached the docks, they saw Striker was sitting there waiting for them with a smile. "Nice to see you could make it Joy," he laughed, standing back up. Ani was right; Striker was more able to move around now since his predicament yesterday.

"_Hiya, Striker!" _Tails Doll cheered, waving at him.

Whisker was about to wave as well, but he suddenly seemed to hear something; something the others didn't catch. Blinking, he glanced over his shoulder, to see if he could spot whatever this was. While Milo probably didn't hear it, he certainly sensed it, causing the lion to look in the same direction Whisker did.

"...did you see anything?" he whispered to Whisker.

"…nay…" Whisker muttered. " ...but thar be somethin' thar."

"...we'd better keep an eye out then," Milo murmured, turning back around to look at Joy giving Striker a greeting embrace.

"_Man, it's good to see you alright!"_ Tails Doll said with a cheer, as he had perched himself on Striker's head to let Joy hug him without any obstructions.

"Are you gonna play piwate too?" Joy asked Striker hopefully.

"Maybe..." Striker replied. "I don't know how much I'll be able to move around."

"_But you can play a bit, at least!" _Tails Doll cheered. _"That's good, too!"_

"Yeah…" Striker let go of Joy and all of them went to climb aboard the ship. As Whisker prepared to climb aboard the ship, however, he stopped, looking back towards the woods.

Noticing this, Tails Doll fluttered down to him. _"What's wrong?" _he inquired.

"...thar be somethin' thar..." Whisker uttered, as his gaze narrowed.

"…is it something bad?" Joy asked, clutching to Striker.

"...dunno..." Whisker uttered, as he clenched his fists. "...but 'tis comin' here."

Hearing that, Tails Doll gulped, as they suddenly saw something moving in the woods, preparing to emerge.

Shortly, someone finally did come out; like a male, Siamese cat, for instance.

Ani tilted her head over. She was expecting someone…intimidating. Not this tall, skinny guy.

Seeing this figure, Whisker blinked. "...an' who be ye?" he uttered warily.

The Siamese cleared his throat. "Mordecai Koopman. I rather you refer to me as Koopman, if you will…"

"Well someone's all proper…" Ani mumbled under her breath.

"…_um… can we help you with something?" _Tails Doll uttered in a slightly off-put tone, not exactly liking the looks of this person.

"I require no help, thank you," Koopman responded. "But I believe my master wishes to meet you all." Then he bowed. "Please welcome my master, Madame Hex."

Ani flinched when she heard that name.

Just as he said the name, someone else emerged from the woods, gracefully approaching the group with one hand on her hip, and the other holding a pipe between her fingers. "…mmmh… so these are the fierce pirates I've heard so much about…" she hummed, looking over each of them with a sultry smile. "…exquisite." she chuckled.

"...great," Ani moaned under her breath in dread, while Joy jumped behind Striker in hiding. No doubt the 3 year old had reason to fear Hex as well.

Milo didn't like the sight of her either, and while he was probably scared of her like Joy, he did a better job at hiding his fear.

"_Ooooh, look at her legs!"_ Tails Doll called, as he noticed the most notable thing about this woman. _"She's got eight of them!"_

"I'm so glad that you noticed." Hex chuckled, before she took a drag from her pipe, blowing out a plume of smoke. "Koopman, their names, please."

Before Koopman could speak, Ani cut in, "You already know my name, so don't bother..."

"...right," Koopman murmured. "Aside from that, I believe the black bear is Striker."

"Huh?" Striker was shocked that this man knew his name.

"Behind him is Joy Condit, I believe," Koopman continued, making Joy shudder. "The lion standing beside them is Milo." Even Milo shuddered. "The large pirate robot is called Captain Whisker..."

Whisker could only blink at this.

"_And I'm Tails Doll!"_ Tails Doll called, apparently not finding it creepy that Hex's subordinate knew all their names.

"How nice." Hex noted dryly, before she hummed. "…Koopman, isn't there someone who's missing?"

"Yes, I would think there would be another," Koopman answered. "Jack is his name, if I remember?"

"So you were stalking us?" Ani supposed sourly.

"Mmmh… stalking is such a dirty word, Anistasia." Hex chuckled, as she approached the husky-wolf. "I prefer to call it observation."

"…but it be the same thing." Whisker noted.

"I never said anything about that." Hex chuckled.

"Not like you're in a position to judge that," Ani grumbled, getting a little nervous as Hex creeped closer.

"Oh, why so tense, Anistasia?" Hex chuckled, as she stopped by the husky-wolf, letting one of her tentacles slide underneath her chin, so she'd be forced to look at Hex. "I won't bite… unless you want me to." she chuckled.

Striker was starting to dislike where this was going. "Maybe you should give her some space," he said, moving the tentacle away from Ani's chin to the husky-wolf's relief.

"Mmmh… I didn't notice that she was taken." Hex chuckled, as she turned her attention to Striker. "…or perhaps you just didn't want to wait in line? That's completely understandable…"

"Wait in line? What're you talking about?" Striker asked without a clue.

Milo rolled his eyes. "She means, when a Mommy and Daddy-"

"AGH!" Striker was in absolute horror, yanking away Ani from her. "Why would you do such a thing?" he yelled at Hex.

"Why?" Hex uttered in surprise, before she cackled. "Oh, you're just a treat, darling!" she chuckled, looking back down at Striker. "Why do I do this? Because it feels good… you should try it, once."

"But...but it's so..." Striker was bothered by this so much he spat it out, "disturbing!"

_Geez Striker, are you still really that traumatized by that?_ Milo thought.

Hex blinked, as she looked at Striker like he had been hit on the head. "…so you really do not like those kinds of experiences?" she hummed…

…before it became a full-blown smirk. "…that makes it even better." she chuckled.

"You're horrible!" Striker accused, getting pretty uneasy around this woman now; yet, he wasn't going to move from where he stood in front of Ani. If anything, he wasn't going to let Ani be a victim, that's for sure.

"Mmmh… you're sharp." Hex chuckled, inching closer to Striker. "Koopman, make sure that the robots don't interfere."

Before Koopman could answer, Hex suddenly felt a tug from behind.

"Weave them awone!" When Hex looked back, she saw that Joy was bravely trying to pull her away from them by one of her tentacles. Obviously, Koopman did nothing because he didn't see the 3 year old as any threat.

"Ah- Joy!" Whisker uttered, taking a step forward. Koopman stood before Whisker, halting him.

"…well, if it isn't little Joy…" Hex chuckled, as she turned around to look at the little ewe. "…you are such a brave little one… it really tugs at my heart." As she said that last part, she hungrily licked her lips in anticipation. Joy shuddered when she saw Hex do that, and for a minute she was going to let go... but then she felt something on her shoulder.

It was her friend, the little white butterfly.

At this moment, it seemed like a small ray of hope, and Joy continued to try and pull Hex away from Striker and Ani, unaware of the fact that Hex might be targeting her now.

"…how charming…" Hex chuckled. "…it's absolutely marvelous." Before Joy would know it, two tentacles suddenly wrapped around Joy's arms, forcibly lifting her up in the air.

"Uh-oh," Joy kicked her legs, but that really didn't do anything for her situation, and the butterfly fluttered around in panic.

"Hey! Put her down!" Ani yelped, but when she tried to push through, Koopman stood in her way.

Chuckling, Hex simply looked at Joy struggling, as one tentacle was rubbing her head slowly. "You're just so cute… I could just eat you up." she purred.

"_Hey, you can't eat her!" _Tails Doll called, as he quickly fluttered towards Hex. But Koopman only snatched Tails Doll by one of his tails, stopping him as well.

The butterfly couldn't take it anymore, and this was something that Milo found abnormal, but it dove right at Hex's face, flustering around furiously. This was almost...intentional of the butterfly.

"What in the-" Hex uttered in an annoyed tone, as she used some of her tentacles to try and swat the butterfly fluttering around her out of the sky. "Shoo, you pest!" she grumbled. The butterfly was hard to bat away for being a small target, and persisted.

Koopman felt his feet fly out from under him in shock, and the next thing he knew, he was thrown into the water; courtesy of Ani's telekinesis. The same telekinesis quickly pulled Joy out of Hex's slimy grasp while she was distracted, and brought her into Ani's safe arms.

"C'mon!" she uttered to the others, leading them onto the ship.

As the group got on the ship, Hex glanced in the ship's direction. "Mmmh… this is exciting…" she chuckled, turning to follow them…

…when a gunshot rang through the air. Hex stopped, having heard a bullet whiz past her, and she looked behind her to see a cloaked person aiming a revolver at her. "…I'd appreciate it if you left." he uttered.

"Lock!" Joy blurted when she saw him.

Koopman climbed out of the water back onto the dock in disgust of being drenched. Then he stared at Lock, whose gun pointed at Hex.

"…now who do we have here?" Hex hummed, looking at Lock with interest. "…well, Koopman? Who is this?"

"...he is Lock the Sniper; an infamous bounty hunter, Madame," Koopman muttered.

"And don't you forget it!" Ani called out in addition.

"…mmmh… Lock the Sniper, huh…" Hex hummed, observing Lock from where she stood. "…he seems like quite a catch."

"Don't make me repeat myself." Lock said. "You should leave."

"…Madame, if I may say so," Koopman said, standing up. "He looks very serious."

Hex, however, didn't seem to mind Koopman, still simply looking at Lock. "…you won't pull the trigger, dear." she chuckled. "If you did… then what would poor Joy think of you?"

Lock remained silent, still keeping a glare aimed at Hex.

_Why did she have to play that card?_ Milo thought in disdain, looking anxiously at the scene.

"…whether or not she's scarred… is not my concern." Lock muttered, preparing to fire. "My concern is whether or not I have to waste a bullet on you."

"…mmmh… how cold you are…" Hex chuckled, as she began moving away. "Very well; I'll take my leave for now. Come, Koopman."

"Yes Madame," Koopman responded obediently, walking away with her.

"…whew," Ani uttered out a breath of relief.

"…good thing that she bought my bluff." Lock sighed, hiding away the revolver within his coat.

"_Man Lock, that was so cool of you!" _Tails Doll cheered, looking at the bounty hunter.

"I'm just glad he didn't have to resort to something drastic," Milo murmured.

With a mild hum, Lock glanced up at the others on the boat. "…everyone's alright, up there?" he called.

"Yeah, we're all okay," Striker answered. That's when he noticed the butterfly returning, and perching onto Joy's shoulder.

Milo watched it too. _That sure is a peculiar butterfly,_ he thought.

Glancing at it, Tails Doll fluttered a bit closer to Joy. _"…pretty butterfly…"_ he hummed.

"Where did that thing come from anyway?" Ani asked, remembering that she saw it the other day.

"I dunno," Joy answered. "But it's my fwiend! Itsa good butterfwy for helpin' us!"

"…curious…" Lock mused, as he got on the ship as well, stretching out. "So, what do you have planned for today?"

"We wanted to know if you'd play pirate with us again," Ani said.

"M-hm!" Joy added happily.

"…I think I can do that." Lock chuckled, tipping his hat to the group. "Same setup as yesterday?"

"Oh definitely!" Ani chuckled.

"Butterfwy!" Joy's cry of disdain no doubt drew everyone's attention, seeing Joy watch that butterfly soar away from them.

"_It's going away!" _Tails Doll called. _"…hey, maybe I can go get it back, Joy?"_ he suggested, looking at her.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Milo said. "It'll probably come back another time. It might have other butterfly friends that it has to go to, right?"

Joy didn't want the butterfly to go, but she understood what Milo said. "…mkay."

"…well, shall we get started?" Lock hummed, rubbing his hands together.

* * *

Walking up the slope leading to Oblivion and Charon, Jack let out a small sigh of relief. "No one was there today, either… wonder if the two of them are awake, yet." he mused to himself, as he kept walking up the path.

When Jack reached the top where the cave was, Oblivion poked her head out, and smiled when she saw him. "Oh good, it's you," she said.

"Hiya, Oblivion!" Jack called, running towards her. "Is Charon asleep?"

"Yeah, he is," Oblivion answered. Then she looked inside the cave a little worriedly. "He was up all night for some reason…"

"Was he? That's not good…" Jack hummed, looking into the cave as well. "…why do you suppose he was up all night?"

"I honestly don't know," Oblivion murmured. "…unless he had a nightmare about Jane…" that part was thoughtfully mumbled to herself, and she didn't really realize that Jack heard her.

Jack blinked, as he tilted his head. "…who's Jane?" he uttered.

Oblivion jumped a little. "…oh…" and averted her eyes away from Jack. "…she's someone that Charon knew."

"…really?" Jack hummed, tapping his chin. "…where is she, now?"

"…she's…" Oblivion really didn't have the heart to tell Jack this, but the most she could do to repay Jack for his kindness would be honesty. "…she's dead."

"…oh…" Jack uttered, as he scratched his head. "…I'm sorry to hear that."

"...it's alright," Oblivion said, trying to smile.

Nodding, Jack placed his hands behind his head, looking into the cave. "…I hope he won't be too sad when he wakes up…" he hummed.

"...me too," Oblivion murmured.

Within the cave, shifting in his sleep, Charon let out a small growl, growing uneasy.

"…_wha… what's the meaning of this?" Charon uttered, looking at a massive crowd gathered before him._

_"We finally found you, you monster!" someone in this crowd yelled, ensuing angry cheers from everyone else around him._

"…_monster…" Charon uttered in a hurt tone, stepping back. "…but… how? No one was supposed to know of this place…"_

_"Oh really?" the same one shouted in the crowd. "I happen to think otherwise!" Then he turned. "Bring her forward!"_

_Those in the crowd scattered aside, while two mobians forced through a third one by her arms. Then they threw her down onto the ground at Charon's feet._

_Seeing her hit the ground before him, Charon's eyes widened. "…Jane!" he uttered, quickly kneeling by her and cradling her body. _

_Jane was a brown Mobian field mouse, with her brown locks weaved into a long braid hanging over Charon's arm. She was young and pretty...but also severely injured. She tried to crack open her glossy hazel eyes that spouted tears. "...Ch-Charon..." she uttered sorrowfully. "...I'm...so s-sorry..."_

_"Then how come she knew everything about you, dragon boy?" accused the same Mobian that had been speaking, causing another uproar in the crowd surrounding him._

_Charon could only look down at Jane in horror, before his gaze moved towards the crowd. "…why… what did you do to her…?" he uttered, on the verge of tears himself._

_"We got what we wanted out of her!" answered the same Mobian. "And now we're going to do the same to you!" More support from the crowd around him._

_Jane clutched to him, sobbing weakly. "...I...I couldn't stop them...I tried...but I..."_

"…_Jane…" Charon uttered, before holding onto Jane, clenching his eyes shut. "…please… don't apologize… they did this to you… because of me…"_

_As the crowd inched closer to the two, Jane buried her face into his chest. "...get out of here...while you still can..." she said; her voice muffled in his chest._

_Charon gritted his teeth, unwilling to face this reality. This crowd was willing to kill him… to the point where they had brutalized his only friend… _

"…_I… can't." he eventually said, before turning away from the crowd, letting go of Jane. "…Jane… you go."_

_"...Charon," the little mouse looked up at her friend in despair._

_"GET HIM!" roared that Mobian in the crowd, which sent all of them upon Charon violently. They all ganged up on him instantly, and one could hear the loud, pained roars coming from the draconic Mobian, as he was mercilessly beaten up by the assembled crowd._

_"NO! STOP IT!" Jane screamed, running up to hit one of those in the crowd away, but they easily threw Jane aside back on the ground again, leaving her to cry hysterically at the sight of her friend being beaten up like this. As he was beaten up, one sound became clearer to Charon than anything else, and that was the cries coming from his friend. After a while, he stopped roaring altogether, as something was building up within him... rage. _

_In that instant, he let out a thundering, booming, furious roar, as he regained his strength enough to rise up to his feet, knocking aside each and every member of the crowd that had been beating him._

_"...Charon?" Jane uttered in surprise._

_Meanwhile, this totally freaked out all of the Mobians. While some started to scream in panic and run away, others drew out weapons and tried to counter against Charon; even though the odds were stacked against them. _

_Charon didn't even try stopping them from striking him, but as they did, their weapons simply didn't elicit a reaction from him. __**"…you made Jane cry…"**__ he growled in an absolutely murderous tone, before he grabbed one of the Mobians; specifically, the very same that had been the spokesperson for the crowd._

_"PUT ME DOWN!" demanded that spokesperson, trying to struggle from their grip._

"…_**you want to be put down…?" **__Charon uttered, as all of a sudden, flames began gathering in his mouth. __**"FINE!" **__Opening his mouth at that time, a blazing storm of fire flowed from his mouth, covering the Mobian in flames instantly. There was no chance that spokesperson could have possibly survived that, and the moment they saw his burned carcass, all of the Mobians screamed even more and started running._

_Jane covered her mouth in her shock._

_Seeing the fleeing Mobians, Charon let out another roar, before he began actively firing at them with his fiery breath; and with both the range and intensity of the flames, needless to say, the casualties were heavy._

_Jane shook her head in utter denial at what was happening. Sure, these people he were killing nearly beat her to death, but they were still her people; and this wasn't like Charon at all._

_"..s-stop..." she muttered, starting up in a run toward Charon. "STOP!"_

_However, her pleas fell on deaf ears, as Charon continued his enraged killing spree, not even paying Jane any heed whilst doing so._

_"CHARON!" she pleaded on her loudest, jumping right into Charon's way. "PLEASE! STOP!"_

_However, in his current state of mind, her leaping in his way signaled a threat to Charon. Roaring, he suddenly slammed his arm with as much force as he could muster right into Jane. She cried out in unbelievable pain since the force was so powerful, and she hit a nearby wall. _

_More significantly, her head hit the wall with the same amount of impact._

_While collapsing onto the ground, a small pool of blood spread out from her head, and she lay motionless on the ground since then._

_It was as if that impact snapped Charon out of his rage, as he suddenly stopped, breathing heavily. "…Jane…?" he uttered, slowly looking towards where he had sent her. "…Jane…" Seeing her simply lying there sent waves of panic through his body, as he turned so he could face this. "…Jane!" With a horrified expression, he ran right to her side, carefully cradling her in his arms. "Jane… please, say something…"_

_Jane made no response whatsoever. Her eyes were closed, and weren't opening any time soon. It didn't help that some of the blood from the head wound started drizzling down his arm as he held her. Seeing her make no motion, along with the blood trickling down his arm, the reality of it all hit Charon harder than anything he had ever felt before. _

_"…I… did this…" he uttered, before looking back down at the mouse, tears welling up in his eyes. "…Jane… I'm so sorry…" he cried, burying his head in her chest._

_Then he unleashed a heart-broken roar._

In that instant, he woke up with a start, holding his middle head whilst trying to catch his breath.

"Charon, are you alright?" Oblivion and Jack were sitting there in the cave, and Charon's start seemed to jump them a little.

Noticing the two of them, Charon nodded a little. "…I'm fine… it was… just a dream…"

Blinking, Jack glanced towards Oblivion, wondering if she would know what dream it could've been.

"...I see," Oblivion murmured. "I hope we didn't wake you up."

"…no, I… can safely say that you didn't." Charon uttered, as he glanced over at Jack. "…morning, Jack."

"…morning, Charon." Jack replied with a smile. "Feeling fine?"

"…yeah… thanks for asking." Charon nodded, trying to smile a bit.

Oblivion smiled. "Well, it's a good thing you're awake now, Charon. I'm sure Jack still has some more of his stories he can't wait on sharing."

"You bet!" Jack laughed, as he rubbed his hands together. "Ready?"

"…ready." Charon nodded, smiling a bit.

* * *

"It seems, my good pirate, that I have you cornered." Right now, the mighty Clubhouse Pirates were facing off against a mighty adversary, who had just cornered the ship's helmsman and chef against a wall, guns pointed at them.

"You'll never beat us!" spat the helmsman. "Our best pirate will take you down!"

"Yeah! She won't have any mercy on you!" added the chef with a confident laugh; despite their unfortunate circumstances.

"Hmph… you two have some gall." the ruthless bounty hunter scoffed, shaking his head. "Of course, you fail to realize three things… one, I have defeated your captain." Motioning to the side, the two could clearly see their captain lying in a daze against the railing. "Second… I've got your parrot."

On cue, the bounty hunter pulled out a bound and gagged parrot, desperately trying to squirm free. _"Aar! Polly wanna cracker, but Polly tied up!"_

"And thirdly…" Now, the bounty hunter chuckled. "…your navigator… has defected."

Both the helmsman and the chef gasped. "No, not the navigator!" they both uttered simultaneously.

"Indeed." the bounty hunter chuckled. "He's already dealt with your first mate, and is now preparing the vessel that will take you brigands in." Then, he shrugged. "Of course, if you don't want to face the gallows, I'll let you face the barrel of my gun as the last thing you'll ever see." After that, he nodded. "So, my dear pirates… what card will you play?"

The choice proved to be too difficult to make, and the two of them looked at the bounty hunter in fading hope.

Then a loud _SHING_ sounded, belonging to a particular sword being pulled out of its sheathe. "Let my friends go, bounty hunter."

Hope had not deserted them after all, and the helmsman and chef lit up with smiles.

The bounty hunter blinked, upon seeing the relieved expressions of the two pirates. _…for them to change moods like this…_ he thought, gritting his teeth. "…it could only mean one thing." With a snarl, the bounty hunter spun around to behold this new challenger.

Long beautiful waves of brown hair cascaded out from underneath a pirate's black hat with white feathers, and fiery, lively green eyes that stared at the bounty hunter with a fearless smile. She was garbed in coats of nothing but pure royalty and jewels, and even her sword which she pointed at the bounty hunter was studded with fabulous diamonds.

"It is the Pirate Princess!" wailed the helmsman happily.

"Her Highness has come to save us!" threw in the chef.

"…the Pirate Princess?" the bounty hunter hummed in surprise. "Interesting. I do wonder what a revered pirate such as yourself is doing, serving under such a weak captain…" Then, he simply shook his head. "…of course, you do realize what you're up against, Princess. Or do I need to introduce myself to you?"

"I know perfectly well who you are, bounty hunter," the Princess spoke. "But enough chatter. Let us do battle, for you have threatened my crew for the last time!" and she lunged forward with a thrust of her diamond-studded sword.

Rotating his revolver around, the bounty hunter quickly repelled the blow with his own firearm. "You do realize, princess, that I'm not on my own in this conquest." With a chuckle, the bounty hunter snapped his fingers.

A dark silhouette jumped down, and held swords to both the necks of the helmsman and the chef. "Princess!" They both cried helplessly.

The Princess stopped and glanced over. "Navigator! How could you?"

"Don't you get it? I was an under cover spy all along!" The navigator replied with a hiss. "Now put down your sword or I shall do something terribly dreadful to your friends...like tickle them with these feathers!" and the navigator pulled out feathers, which the helmsman, the chef, and the Princess shot looks of horror at.

"You wouldn't!" the Princess uttered.

"He would." the bounty hunter chuckled. "Now, do as he said, and lay down your sword, Princess."

The Princess could do nothing more than that, and once she lay down her sword, she kept her hands raised to show nothing else was in her hands.

The bounty hunter chuckled, as he slowly approached the Princess, keeping his firearm trained on her. "Now, my dear, I have you in the exact position that suits me the best. You're one of the most renowned pirates to ever cross the seas… your bounty will have me set for life. So, let's get a move on, Princess." he said, motioning for her to follow him.

"Whatever you say, bounty hunter," the Princess grumbled, obeying him.

As the Princess followed the bounty hunter, he eventually began laughing loudly and triumphantly. "With the Pirate Princess captured, there's _no one _left to stop me!"

The Princess scoffed. "Your greed blinds you, bounty hunter."

"Oh, does it now?" the bounty hunter cackled, spinning dramatically around to face her. "I am not blinded by greed; I'm blinded by the fact that this crew is utterly defeated! You have no chance of survival, so you'd better prepare to make time before you're hanging from a noose!"

"This isn't the end of me and my crew, bounty hunter," the Princess spoke bravely.

"Oh, really?" the bounty hunter chuckled. "And who could save you in this moment of utter defeat?"

"The captain!" All of a sudden, the seemingly-defeated captain had mustered enough strength to lunge at the traitor, gripping hold of him and keeping him from getting to the helmsman and the chef.

The Princess grinned. "I knew you'd pull through, Captain!"

"Now we got you surrounded, bounty hunter!" The helmsman said, as he and the chef circled the bounty hunter to make the statement true.

"…so it would seem…" the bounty hunter hummed, glancing around him. "…or not!" Suddenly, he turned his guns on the helmsman and chef, firing them with pin-point accuracy.

"AGH!"

"UGH!"

Both of them fell to the ground, clutching to the places where the shots hit them.

"No!" cried out the Princess in despair. "You are a horrible bounty hunter!"

"I would daresay that I am an excellent bounty hunter, Princess." the bounty hunter chuckled, before pointing one gun at the Pirate Princess. "Now, dead princess, as we say in my home… _en passant!"_

"I'm not dead yet!" she proclaimed, and she ran for her sword on the ground.

"Oho!" the bounty hunter exclaimed, as he quickly fired his guns at the Pirate Princess.

Unfortunately for the bounty hunter, the Princess was much quicker than that. She dove down with a hand to the ground, and flipped over to maneuver around the bullets in skilled acrobats that were unmatched by anyone who dared to sail the seas.

After a series of flips, her hand reached the hilt of her trusted blade, and she launched herself quickly at the bounty hunter with her sword.

Laughing wildly, the bounty hunter used his revolver to parry the blow, before he leaped back, gaining some distance between the two. "As expected of the Pirate Princess!" he said in a snide tone.

"Then how about this?" the Princess grabbed a nearby rope and propelled herself all around the ship, coming back around behind the bounty hunter to try and strike him in mid-swing.

Again, however, the bounty hunter evaded her fierce blow, skidding along the deck whilst twirling his guns. "…not bad at all… I need to resort to my secret weapon!"

The Princess landed back on the deck, pointing her sword at him. "And what kind of a secret weapon would best me? Humor me!"

"Very well; I shall!" the bounty hunter said, as he cautiously moved a hand towards his coat, when… "…HEY. THERE'S SOMETHING BIG BEHIND YOU; WATCH OUT!"

With a gasp, the Princess spun around. "Where?"

All of a sudden, something flew up above the Princess, arcing up in the sky before exploding, briefly blackening the skies.

"…right behind you." the bounty hunter chuckled, as he now suddenly held a massive, high-pressure, plasma-bearing rifle at the ready, aimed at the Princess.

"You are a sneaky one!" The Princess remarked, readying her sword.

"And you are a most worthy opponent, to get me to use this!" the bounty hunter laughed, motioning for her to come at him. "Meet your end, Pirate Princess!"

"Never!" And she came at him with her blade, again. Using the massive width of the rifle, the bounty hunter parried the blow, before aiming a swing at her as well. The Princess jumped away from it, and tried to swing again.

This time, however, she actually landed a blow against the bounty hunter, causing him to stagger back, clutching his newfound wound. "…kkh… you got… lucky…" he coughed.

"It's not luck, its skill!" The Princess corrected, and she lunged at him again.

With the weight of his weapon, the bounty hunter failed to move aside in time, and as a result, took the blow head-on. "…kuh… is this… the end…?" he uttered, slowly collapsing.

"I'll make sure your bounty hunting days are done!" The Princess said again, and ran at him to make her last move.

That did the trick, as the bounty hunter was felled by that one last blow. "…kkh… Pirate… Princess…" he uttered, looking up at her as his breath grew more rapid. "…remember… my name…" Then, his body fell limp.

"I will remember," The Princess said, placing her sword on her shoulder. "Because then I can tell everybody that you won't stop pirates like us anymore." And she turned her back on him to walk away.

"…_arr, that was awesome!" _the parrot suddenly chimed in, having freed itself from the bonds that the bounty hunter had put him in. _"Arr, but what about the traitor?"_

The Princess looked over at that two-timing navigator, who was in the captivity of the Captain and trying to squirm free. "I think I know what we'll do with him," she said. "We're going to take these feathers from my hat...and tickle him!"

Everyone on the ship gasped.

"No, anything but that!" pleaded the navigator.

"It be no better than what ye deserve!" the Captain chimed in, looking down at the navigator, whilst letting his feet stick out, giving the Pirate Princess the perfect opportunity of attack.

She plucked off a feather from her hat and approached the navigator while he panicked. "No! I'll turn over a new leaf! I swear!"

"Sorry; once a liar, always a liar," The Princess tsked.

"_Go on, Princess! Tickle him!" _the parrot laughed, fluttering above the Pirate Princess.

She grabbed a hold of the navigator's feet.

"Coochie-coochie coo!"

Hysterical laughing erupted while the feather stroked over his foot. More laughter came, but from her; very childish giggles.

"Aw, c'mon Joy! That's enough tickling!" Milo roared with laughter, but he wouldn't get any mercy. More feathers jabbed at his sides and he laughed so hard that tears rolled down his face.

"Man, you are ticklish!" Striker laughed.

"_Get'im get'im get'im!" _Tails Doll cheered, fluttering wildly around Joy.

Getting up on his feet again, Lock couldn't help but chuckle at seeing Milo tickled like that.

Milo was laughing so hard now that his sides were starting to hurt badly.

"Okay guys," Ani said, pushing away all the feathers. "Let him breathe at least."

"Ahahah...heheh..." Milo slowly calmed down, taking deep breaths; like he had been on the verge of death itself. If they kept tickling him to a point where he couldn't breathe, then maybe he would've been.

Joy just laughed. Then her gigantic pirate hat slid over her face. The majority of what she was wearing was much too big on her, dragged across the surface of the deck like long robes. "That was fun!" she exclaimed, waving her foamy sword enthusiastically.

"I'll say," Lock chuckled, as he stretched his arms out a bit. "And mother always wondered how I could use those acting lessons in my line of work…"

"_That was so much fun!" _Tails Doll laughed. "If someone had filmed that, it'd be awesome!"

"I can see it now," Ani said with her hands panning across. "In simple times, a villainous bounty hunter preys on pirates. But then he meets the Pirate Princess! A new movie coming to a theater near you!"

Joy laughed at the thought of it.

"...hey guys, look at that," Milo said, with a point to the horizon.

Everyone looked, and saw that the sun was getting close to the tips of the waters in the distance, not to mention that the sky was beginning to fade into that familiar golden twilight.

"...It's getting late," Striker observed, looking to Joy. "Looks like we'd better take you home."

"Aw..." moaned Joy, shuffling her feet.

"…time certainly flies when you have fun," Lock hummed, as he scratched the back of his head, before he picked up the ammo he had fired at Striker and Ani earlier; a few corks. "I suppose we'll see each other tomorrow."

"…_come to think of it… where do you sleep, Lock?" _Tails Doll noted. _"I haven't seen you around that facility we sleep at…"_

"Yeah, that's right," Ani said. "Do you just crawl into a hole in the ground to sleep in, or what?"

"…I find different places to sleep in around the island." Lock hummed. "Yesterday, for instance, I found an old cave by the foot of a mountain. It seemed somewhat damaged, but I could stay in there." With that said, he took his rifle, and began moving off the ship. "I'll see where I can rest tonight. Good night to all of you."

"Nighty, night Lock!" Joy called, waving at him.

Ani started taking off the hat and the coats around Joy. "Let's get these put away and get you home, then."

* * *

"Looks like it's getting late again," Oblivion observed.

"Already?" Jack groaned. "Maaan… I didn't even notice."

"…a shame…" Charon hummed. "…guess we'll be seeing each other tomorrow?"

"Of course!" Jack laughed, giving Charon a nod.

"You be careful on your way down, then," Oblivion said with a smile.

"I will! See you guys tomorrow!" Jack called, as he ran down the path, leaving Charon and Oblivion alone once more. Once he was out of sight, Charon entered the cave again.

Oblivion turned away from watching Jack leave, and looked at Charon while he walked into the cave. "…you are alright, right Charon?" she asked, following him into the cave.

"…yes." Charon nodded, one of his heads glancing at Oblivion. "…why do you ask?"

"…I was just asking to make sure," Oblivion said. "You were pretty startled this morning…"

"…like I said… it was just a dream…" Charon mused, as he sat down by the wall, closing his eyes.

"Alright then," Oblivion murmured.

Down at the bottom of the mountain, Jack wandered back into town, and upon arriving there he heard a voice.

"Hi Jack!" It turned out to be the gang; Striker, Ani, Milo, Whisker, Tails Doll, and Joy. Joy was the first to reach the lion, throwing her arms around him in a hug.

"Oh, hi, guys!" Jack laughed, returning the hug back to Joy. "Did you guys have fun, today?"

"_We had lots of fun!" _Tails Doll laughed, fluttering around Joy and Jack excitedly.

"Man, I wish you were there today!" Striker said. "Where do you go anyway, Jack?"

"I go exploring!" Jack said with a laugh. "This island is huge; ripe for adventure! We need to explore the place together when the tournament's done!"

"Oh, we sure do!" Striker agreed.

"What about the tournament, though?" Ani asked. "Aren't you going to train for it?"

"…oh, that?" Jack began, scratching the back of his head. "I've been thinking about that, and… I don't think I'll take part in it."

"_Why not?" _Tails Doll hummed.

"I dunno; maybe I don't feel up to it." Jack shrugged. "But I hope you guys have lots of fun when it starts!"

"Then you gotsa watch it with me!" Joy pestered excitedly. "You gotsa sit with me and watch my Mama, and Metoh, and Strikoh and Ani and Milo—"

"Actually, I'm not going to be in the tournament either," Milo corrected.

"Oh, right," Joy remembered. "But you gotsa watch it Jack!"

"…I'll try to be there." Jack said with a smile.

"_Oh boy! You've got to hear what we've been doing, today!"_ Tails Doll laughed. _"Striker, Ani, tell him on the way back!"_

So Striker and Ani began the story while all of them walked up to the facility, and down the stairs.

"-and then we finished it off by tickling the heck out of Milo!" Striker finished with a laugh, when they reached the door of Metal, Jill and Joy's room.

"Man, that's one story, alright!" Jack laughed, as he glanced at the door. "Well, here we are!" he said, before knocking on the door.

"…the door's open. Come in." they could hear Metal say from within the room.

"Alright!" Jack nodded, as he opened the door.

Joy ran in, and she was stopped at what she saw.

"…wow…Mama's tired," she murmured, walking up to one of the beds. Jill was lying there, totally out cold.

"Yeah…" Metal nodded. "…she got really tired after training today, so the moment we got home, she practically fell asleep the moment she got in bed."

"Man… she's really going all out for the tournament…" Jack noted.

"Yeah," Ani said. "In these recent years, Jill's been pushing herself more and more. I wouldn't doubt it."

"Well, we'll leave then so we won't disturb you guys too much," Striker said with a nod.

"…I see…" Metal nodded, as he glanced at the group. "…good night, then."

"Night." Jack said with a small smile, before he and the others left, leaving Metal, Joy and the sleeping Jill on their own.

* * *

**_One more of the Clubhouse Pirates. Then you can look forward to teams Alpha and Chaotix XD_**


	4. The Clubhouse Pirates Day Three

**_So we have this last one, and then it's Team Alpha vs. Chaotix next XD_**

* * *

_**Day Three**_

_**

* * *

**_

Joy tossed and turned. Finally, she just opened her eyes and sat up. It was still pretty dark in here; maybe the early morning. Looking over, Jill was still out. _Poor Mama,_ she thought. Then she peered to the other bed, and saw that Metal was asleep too.

It very well may have been much too early to wake up.

Joy climbed out of bed and trotted over to the other bed where Metal was, looking at him from right there. She knew that it wasn't nice to wake people up, but she started to grow lonelier as she waited, and at this rate, she didn't feel like she could go back to sleep.

"...Metoh?" she whispered.

At first, it didn't seem to have worked; however, after a few moments, Metal blinked, slowly sitting up from his bed, looking down at Joy. "…Joy…" he hummed. "…did something wake you up?"

Joy nodded. "...it was another dream..." and then she glanced back at her mother uneasily. "...about Mama."

"…is that so…?" Metal hummed, turning to fully face her. "…was it a bad dream…?"

"...dunno...but I was ascared..."

Humming, Metal gently set a hand on Joy. "…do you think you can tell me what it was about?"

Joy looked down to the ground, afraid to talk. "...a bad man was hurting Mama..." she whispered in an incredibly quiet voice.

Metal's eyes widened, as he looked down at Joy. "…someone was… hurting her…?" he uttered.

Joy nodded, twisting nervously. "...it was a bad man I never seed before..." she murmured. "...he was scary..."

Nodding, Metal looked down at Joy with a slight smile. "Don't worry; it was only a dream." he said, hoping to calm her down.

Joy looked up at Metal, but somehow she didn't look comforted. She reached forward with her arms to clutch to Metal. "...it didn't feel like a dream..." she said, with her voice muffled in Metal's side. Metal blinked, as he carefully held Joy in return. He was curious as to what she meant, but he didn't want to force her into saying something that'd make her more uncomfortable, so he remained silent for the time being.

"...is something bad gonna happen to Mama, Metoh?" Joy asked in fear.

As he looked down at Joy after she had asked her question, Metal remained silent for a bit. With her powers returning, along with Diablo, Raider and Kiri on the loose.

…_no… I'll make sure to keep anything from happening..._

"…don't worry, Joy." Metal eventually said. "Jill is going to be fine… I promise."

Joy hugged Metal tighter gratefully. With a small smile, Metal closed his eyes, hugging Joy back.

"...Metoh, I can't go back to sleepy..." Joy muttered. "...Can I...?"

"…I'm not sure…" Metal hummed. "…do you think you'll be able to sleep, if… I tell you a story?"

"...mkay," Joy said, immediately climbing into Metal's lap.

"…let's see, now…" Metal hummed, rubbing his chin. "…once upon a time, there was a brave hero who traversed the entire world." he began, making sure that Joy was comfortable where she sat. "No threat was too big for him, and no deed was too lowly for him to accomplish."

"Who was this brave hero?" Joy asked curiously.

"…his name…?" Metal hummed, before chuckling. "I'll tell you after the story. In any case, one day, the hero found a massive planet chained above a lake; enslaved by a maniacal tyrant, and the hero's evil twin. A fair maiden was also caught up in this struggle, as the hero decided to free the planet."

"Uh-oh, sounds bad," Joy said, growing interested.

"It was a mighty struggle, with the hero traversing through the planet; not only in the present, but in the past and future, too." Metal continued, looking down at Joy. "You see, the planet contained six stones that, when used properly, allowed the user to use time to his advantage. The tyrant tried corrupting the past to ensure that the future would be shaped in his image; dark and twisted." Then, he nodded. "But the hero wouldn't let that happen."

"Cause he's the good guy," Joy added, nodding.

"Right; he's the good guy." Metal chuckled. "His quest sent him all over the planet; through tropics, bouncing springs, water, bizarre architecture and stardust, battling his enemies with ease. The hero even squared off against his evil twin, and through a grueling struggle, he defeated the bad seed, rescuing the maiden in the process."

Joy smiled happily when she heard that.

"After a long while, he cornered the tyrant, who had almost completely run out of things to use to bring the hero down. With his last piece of equipment, he and the hero fought against each other, but the hero finally defeated him. As the tyrant's hold over the island waned, the chains holding it in place crumbled, and both the hero and the maiden escaped from the island, as it faded away into a different dimension, not to return for another hundred years."

Joy tried to keep her eyes open now, but it was hard. She at least wanted to find out who this hero is, and who the fair maiden and the evil twin were.

Seeing her about to fall to sleep, Metal smiled. "The tyrant tried sneaking off with part of the island's essence, but the hero stopped him from leaving. From that day on, everyone would know the name of that hero, as he would time and time again stop the tyrant's schemes. And his name was…" Then, he closed his eyes. "…Sonic the Hedgehog."

Her smile widened when she heard that name, finally letting her eyes close. "...It's so cool that he's your grampa, huh Metoh?" she mumbled.

"…yeah." Metal nodded. "He's quite the character…"

Thus, Joy fell asleep right there on Metal's lap. Looking at the sleeping Joy, Metal smiled. As he glanced out the window, however, his smile fell._ …it's been quite a while, now… _he thought. _…but Novagod and Callous have not invaded my dreams at all during this period. This is getting worrisome… at this point, battling that apparition would be a relief. _

Joy brought her thumb to her mouth and started sucking on it in content.

Some hours later when the sun finally arose, Metal was still awake, as he simply looked out of the window in thought. His train of thought was derailed, however, when he heard knocking on the door. "…come in." he hummed. He expected that it was Whisker and the gang to get Joy anyway.

And his expectations were right. Milo and Striker peeked their heads in to see that Joy was still asleep on Metal's lap. Ani pushed through to see this too. "Awww..." she cooed quietly.

Metal gave the group a simple smile, before he lightly nudged Joy. "Wake up, Joy; you've got people waiting for you." he said.

* * *

Up on the mountain the morning fog was just starting to clear, but even then it was a little hard for Oblivion to see through it. Not only was it hard to see, but the lack of sun made it a little cold up there. Low growls emerged from the cave from time to time, indicating that Charon was still asleep. Oblivion occasionally smiled at Charon, and went back to looking down the path to watch for anyone walking up the hill. Hopefully, Charon was sleeping more peacefully.

Soon, she noticed someone familiar running up the slope, waving towards her. "Hiya!" Jack called, as he quickly reached the top, heaving for his breath. "Man, its cold out, today… don't you think so, Oblivion?"

"Just a tad," Oblivion chuckled a little, trying to hide the fact that she was actually shivering a little.

"I wonder if Charon's cold…" Jack hummed, scratching his mane a bit. "…do you think he's cold, Oblivion?"

"Don't know," Oblivion said. "He looks plenty cozy in the cave. Come on in." and she turned around entering inside. With a nod, Jack followed Oblivion into the cave.

Sure enough, Charon was still asleep, but he didn't seem to be affected by the cold at all.

"Maybe I'll start a fire or something," Oblivion said; while it was slightly warmer in the cave than outside, it was still pretty chilly.

"That could work!" Jack nodded. "Do you want me to get some firewood, or-"

Suddenly, Charon sneezed in his sleep, though one of his heads conveniently spat out fire when he did so, and once the fireball hit the ground, it lingered there, not moving from its position or breaking apart.

"...huh," Oblivion said, smiling as she sat by this fire. "That was definitely convenient."

"…man, I didn't know that Charon could breathe fire." Jack said with a smile, sitting down by the fire as well. "He's really cool!"

"Yeah...I suppose he tries not to use fire since it can get out of control sometimes," Oblivion said, rubbing her hands near the fire.

"Out of control?" Jack hummed, holding his hands near the fire as well. "Like how?"

"...bad things..." Oblivion said. "...it'd just be better if you didn't know, Jack."

"…aaaw…" Jack hummed, looking down at the ground. "…it's too bad that you two have to stay up here, though. With only Spiel and his friends keeping you company…"

"...well, I suppose it isn't so bad," Oblivion said. "After all, you come to see us."

"…yeah, I did." Jack said with a nod. "…you know what could be cool, though?" he eventually said, as he grinned. "I could stay here for the night; like a slumber party!"

"That would be nice," Oblivion said, smiling at the thought. "But what about your friends?" After all, he had been coming up here for the past 3 days from sun up to sun down.

"Oh, yeah…" Jack hummed, scratching his head. "…but I'm sure it'll be fine! They've been playing with Joy all this time, so I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to sleep over at the ship tonight!" he eventually laughed.

"If you say so," Oblivion said, smiling again. "I'm sure Charon will like the idea when he wakes up."

"Can't wait to hear what he'll say!" Jack snickered.

* * *

Once the Clubhouse Pirates got to the ship, they saw that Lock was sitting on the railing, simply looking up at the island. "Ahoy!" Whisker called once he spotted the bounty hunter. "That be an unusual sight!"

"…good morning to you, too." Lock chuckled, tipping his hat to the group.

"Lock!" Joy hurried up to Lock and gave him a hug; different to the formalities of waves and greetings from the rest in the group.

Returning the hug briefly, Lock looked down at Joy. "You're certainly energetic, today." he noted.

"Yep!" Joy giggled.

"I see…" Lock chuckled, ruffling Joy's hair. "So, what have you all planned for today?"

"Think you could handle another game of pirates?" Striker asked.

Then a snort jumped them all; except the ever vigilant Lock, maybe. "What are you guys? 4?"

"Oh no!" Milo groaned in dread, hiding behind Striker and Ani as they all witnessed a particular male gazelle Mobian coming their way; Hank, as Ani had called him 3 nights ago.

"Oh, boy…" Tails Doll sighed, rubbing his head.

"…an' who be ye?" Whisker inquired, looking crossly at Hank.

"Hank will do," the tall gazelle responded, not paying much heed to Whisker. "And by the way, I found something in the dumpster today kid. I think it might be yours." He tossed something at their feet, and Striker gasped in horror.

"SNAP!" he wailed, kneeling down at the robot that was somehow in a much worse condition than when he last remembered him to be in.

"_Holy- SNAP!" _Tails Doll called, as he and the others rushed over to the robot.

Lock and Joy, however, remained where they were, as the bounty hunter glared at the gazelle. "…what did you do?" he uttered.

"The thing was bugging me, with its jitters and its photo taking," Hank scoffed. "I told the scrap heap to stop or I'd pound him, and he didn't stop. So I put some sense into it, but I think I overdid it and broke your toy."

Joy looked so tearfully heartbroken by this, trying not to cry. "He's not a toy...he's our fwiend!" Joy protested hurtfully.

Frowning, Lock prepared to jump off the railing. "…you…"

"…just who do ye think ye be?" Whisker snarled, as he stomped towards Hank, cracking his neck. "Hurtin' one o' our buddies… ye're gonna pay, landlubber!"

"And what are you going to do? Keelhaul me?" Hank assumed jokingly. "Like you could stand against me, pirate wannabe."

"…what did ye say?" Whisker uttered murderously, as he stopped right in front of Hank, looking down at him.

"…_oh, you did not just say that…" _Tails Doll hummed. _"Lock, do you think you can take Joy down below, and find some bandages? Lots of bandages!"_

"…sure." Lock nodded, as he led Joy towards one of the hallways, so she wouldn't have to see the impending battle.

"…did ye jus' call me a pirate wannabe?" Whisker snarled, as he slowly cracked his neck and knuckles. "Do ye even know who I be?"

"No, and I don't care," Hank replied. "But I bet that you're itching for a fight?"

"Oh, ye'd best believe it, maggot!" Whisker growled, raising one of his fists. "No one mocks Captain Whisker an' be gettin' away wi' it!" he added, before slamming his fist right down on top of Hank's head.

Hank took a dizzy stumble back and forth, and then he shook it off. "Hard hitter, aren't ya?" he said, shooting one of his own fists at Whisker.

Of course, with Whisker's metallic body, Hank's punch went by as well as one could expect. "There be none stronger on any sea!" he boasted, before he aimed a sudden punch right at Hank's face.

Hank was knocked backward off his feet, and he groaned not only from the punch, but his hand ached from hitting the metal. "Why you-!" you only got angrier and got up, giving a kick to Whisker instead. That, too, only hurt. "YEOOWWW!" he yelped, hopping up and down while holding his foot.

As he hopped around, however, Whisker suddenly grabbed his foot, slowly clenching his hand together. "…now, ye lowly sea cucumber, what have we learned?" he uttered menacingly, slowly crushing Hank's foot within his grip.

Hank whimpered, swearing he could feel the bones in his foot breaking. "I learned not to mess with you, that's for sure!" he barked. "Let go of my damn foot!"

"Not until ye say me name!" Whisker snarled, not letting go of Hank whatsoever. "Say it, and tell me that ye be sorry for hurtin' our comrade!"

"Alright, alright!" Hank was all for saying uncle now. "I'm sorry I wrecked your toy!" He cringed as his foot suffered more. "Just let me go...uh... Captain Whisker?"

_**"TOY?"**_ Whisker snarled, his grip getting even stronger.

"OW! OW! OW! OW! OW!" whined Hank. "OK! Your friend! Sorry I hurt your friend!"

"That be better." Whisker uttered, though still, he didn't let go of Hank. "…but ye almost made little Joy cry… that be unforgiveable!" At that point, he grabbed hold of Hank's shoulder as well, clutching it tightly.

Hank let out a scream of pain, unable to move away from Whisker to save himself.

Ani's eyes widened at this scene. She didn't remember Whisker being this vicious.

"Now, are ye gonna apologize fer that?" Whisker uttered, glaring at Hank with his robotic eyes. "Answer me… landlubber."

"...I-I'm s-sorry I made her cry!" Hank replied, just about ready to cry himself.

"...good." With a mild scoff, Whisker let go of Hank's leg, glaring at him. "…I do not want to hear abou' ye goin' anywhere near me comrades again. Do ye understand?"

"Yeah, sure," Hank whimpered, limping away with his broken foot and his aching shoulder.

"Way to show him, Captain Whisker," Striker congratulated, once Hank was out of earshot.

Nodding, Whisker looked back at the group. "…that'll teach him not to mess with me crew!" he said with a nod.

"...but Snap," Milo murmured, directing everyone's gaze down at the beaten up robot. "...we're going to have to fix him again."

"...I didn't even completely fix him the first time," Striker said sadly.

Ani shared Striker's sadness in sympathy. "Poor guy."

"…I see that it's over." At this point, Lock and Joy had gotten back, the bounty hunter holding some bandages in his hands. "Where did he go?"

"_Captain Whisker sent him flying!" _Tails Doll called, waving to Lock and Joy.

"C'mon..." Striker said, standing up with parts of Snap in his arms. "Let's see if we can fix him on the ship."

"…maybe I could lend you a hand, there?" Lock hummed.

* * *

"…man, he's still not waking up…" Jack hummed, glancing over at Charon, who let out a few rumbling growls every so often in his sleep.

"Hm..." _Maybe he stayed up again,_ was Oblivion's thought while she looked outside the cave. The fog had cleared a bit more, now, but it was still somewhat cold. She couldn't complain though; she and Jack were still sitting at that fire that Charon spat out hours ago.

"…is he always a heavy sleeper?" Jack hummed, tapping his chin.

"...sometimes," Oblivion answers. "There are times he sleeps through storms, yet somehow he remains vigilant enough to hear someone coming..."

Humming, Jack looked up at Charon…

…just as his eyes opened. "…someone's coming."

Oblivion, shocked at the coincidence, jumped to her feet. "Jack, hide!"

"Ah- but where?" Jack uttered, when suddenly, Charon grabbed him. "Eh?"

"Be silent." Charon uttered, as he quickly laid down on the ground, covering himself and Jack with his wings, in an attempt to blend in with the scenery.

Oblivion quickly went to the mouth of the cave to see how close this someone was getting-when something accidentally ran into her and knocked her to the cave floor. "Ow..." she uttered.

"...oh, I didn't know someone was actually in this cave..." Oblivion heard a voice, yes, but...she didn't see anyone.

"...huh?" she uttered, baffled.

"Oh, right. You can't see me." Someone appeared out of thin air into view; a yellow half-cyborg monkey with katanas on his back.

"W-Who are you?" Oblivion asked quickly, standing up. She didn't remember seeing this character at all. "Are you a new associate of Spiel's?"

"Actually, no," Cal answered. "My name is Calculate. Cal is preferred, and..." he looked suspiciously at her. "...why are you hiding in this cave at the top of this mountain?"

Keeping silent, to make sure that he wasn't seen, Charon cautiously glanced at this newcomer, without breaking up his disguise.

"...I was...enjoying the sights," Oblivion tried to make a lie, but even she knew that Cal wasn't buying it. "What makes you think I was hiding?"

"Because your heart rate still hasn't decreased since I reappeared," Cal reasoned with a raised eyebrow. "You're scared of something."

"S-scared of what?" Oblivion chuckled nervously.

…_Oblivion… _Charon thought, as he kept as quiet as he could, hoping that Oblivion could ward this newcomer away.

"Well, if you're going to lie to me, at least make it more convincing," Cal murmured, folding his arms. "What are you doing here, and why are you trying to hide it?"

Oblivion stared at him in fear.

"...Ch-Charon, hold him down! Hurry!"

Everything then seemed to happen in a blur. Roaring, Charon let go of Jack, quickly rushing at Cal , before pinning him down on the ground.

"Ah- WAIT!" Seeing that, Jack got to his feet. "Don't hurt him! Cal's a friend!"

"WHA?" Cal was definitely surprised at what happened. "Jack? Is that you? What're you-" and his mouth was covered up by Oblivion's hand.

"Don't worry Jack. We won't hurt him," Oblivion promised, pressing her fingers against Cal's head. Cal muffled underneath her other hand, trying to struggle as a white glow appeared on his head from her fingers. Slowly, Cal eventually stopped struggling, and fell limply unconscious.

At that point, Oblivion pulled her fingers away. "It's done."

Growling, Charon stood up, looking down at Cal . "…how much did you take, Oblivion?" he uttered.

"…take?" Quickly, Jack ran to Cal 's side, feeling his pulse. "…was that… did you erase his memories?"

"Yes, and I only erased his memory of meeting me in the cave," Oblivion answered. "He's perfectly fine, Jack."

"…hmm…" Humming, Jack stood up, as he looked down at Cal . "…we could've tried explaining the situation, though…"

"It'd present too much risk." Charon growled, closing his eyes. "…this had to be done."

"...we'll have to move him now," Oblivion murmured. "We can't leave him here. He'll wake up and then it'll start all over again..."

"…right…" Charon nodded, as he folded his arms. "…should we just take him down the path, or…?"

"...let's take him further away enough so that he doesn't end up back here again..." Oblivion said, crouching down to pick up Cal by the arms.

"…um…" Jack uttered, as he looked from Charon to Oblivion. "…who should help you take him away?"

"Oh, Jack!" Oblivion had nearly forgotten he was standing there; a bit of irony, if you will. "Would you be willing to help me?"

"…sure." Jack nodded, taking Cal 's legs. "Where do we take him?"

"Just down the path a little," Oblivion said, watching for anyone else coming by, and there was no one, so they were safe to head down the path with Cal.

As they carried him down, Jack remained silent.

Oblivion couldn't help but think this would look a lot worse in another perspective; what someone would think if they saw her and Jack carrying Cal like this. "Maybe we'd better set him somewhere off the path, where no one would see him," she murmured.

"…maybe so…" Jack murmured. "…but don't you think that he might walk up the path again when he wakes up?"

"…it might depend on when he'll wake up," Oblivion said, taking them over into the hidden brush off the path. "If it's getting late when he wakes up, he'll have to walk down the path, right? I think he'll be out for that long…"

"…true…" Jack muttered, as he and Oblivion set Cal down just off the path.

Looking at Cal lying there, Oblivion sighed. "...sorry I did that to your friend," she apologized. "It was...a quick reaction I've developed."

"…you did it to protect Charon…" Jack murmured, looking down at Cal . "…and you didn't hurt him, so… it's alright." he said, giving the unicorn a small nod.

Oblivion nodded back. "Let's get back to the cave then..."

Jack nodded, as he began running up the path again, glancing back at Oblivion. Oblivion followed, taking one last glance at Cal, wondering if he'll be alright. Hopefully, no one would find him over here; imagine the hubbub that would boil if one of Spiel's associates found him.

* * *

"Thanks for helping, Lock," Striker said, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"Don't mention it." Lock nodded, as he was cleaning his hands. "It's the least I could do."

"_But maaan… I didn't know that you were such a good mechanic, Lock!" _Tails Doll noted.

"…and you didn't catch onto that until now?" Lock quipped, glancing at the small plushie, before looking over at Snap.

"Yeah Tails Doll, don't you remember Lock works on Extreme Gears too?" Ani said.

"That's beside the point, anyway," Milo remarked, looking at Snap as well. "Let's see if we can bring him back online again."

With a nod, Striker shifted Snap over so he could reach the compartment in the back of his robot's head. That's where the switch was to turn him on, so he flipped it.

...and they waited.

"...Smap?" Joy muttered, starting to grow disheartened.

The robot's eyes popped open. _"AAAAAAAGH!"_ and he shot up in his seat, startling everyone in the room; it even got screams out of the others. Then everyone settled down to catch their breath, while Snap looked around in a fluster. The only one who seemed to keep his composure under control was Lock, who simply looked at Snap.

"…are you alright?" he inquired.

_"It was horrible!" _Snap uttered, clasping to his face. "_He wouldn't stop! I didn't even do anything to aggravate him either; he just upright started to-"_

"Smap!" Joy threw her arms around Snap happily, which jumped him at first, but then he slowly calmed down.

"…relax, Snap." Lock said with a nod. "Whisker dealt with him, so I doubt you'll need to worry about him for a long while."

Snap let out a breath of soothing relief, hugging Joy back. _"...I wasn't sure if you were ever going to fix me,"_ he muttered.

"Well, we couldn't have done it without Lock," Striker said, smiling. With a mere nod, Lock tipped his hat to Snap.

_"Thanks," _Snap said, smiling. Then he gagged and spat out a bunch of photos, sounding as bad as a fax machine when doing it.

"...you okay Snap?" Milo asked nervously while Snap choked on the numerous photos he spat out; which made quite a pile on the ground.

Finally, Snap could breathe, with a few coughs here and there. _"...weird," _he muttered. _"I didn't expect to do that."_

"…perhaps it was a delayed reaction?" Lock presumed.

"_Hmm…" _Humming, Tails Doll fluttered down to the pile of photos on the ground, looking through a few of them. Pretty soon, all of them started picking up the photos and looking at them.

"...what's this one of, Snap?" Milo asked curiously, showing Snap one of them.

Snap rubbed his head sheepishly. _"Jill was pressured into a drinking game, and she won. Even while drunk, she managed to throw the guys out of the bar."_

"You took a picture of that?" Ani laughed, certainly enjoying the memory of Will and his gang waking up at the pub that next morning.

_"...not on purpose,"_ Snap protested in embarrassment.

"…hm." Lock hummed, noting one of the pictures. "…I didn't know that Metal was a fan of milkshakes."

"_Ooh, you found a picture of that?"_ Tails Doll said, fluttering up to Lock whilst holding onto a different picture. _"I found one of King fighting some dog in an arena!"_

"Really, now?" Lock hummed, glancing at that picture.

"AWWWWWW!" Ani cooed loudly, while looking at another one. "It's Metal and Joy! They're SOOOO cute when they're asleep like that!"

"Let me see," Milo said, glancing over Ani's shoulder. Seeing it, a smile crossed his face.

"_Oooh! Oooh! Look at what I found!"_ Tails Doll called, fluttering over to the others with a different picture. "_It's from when Jill and Joy preformed at the music square!"_

"Let me see…" Lock said, taking a glance at the picture. "…they seem to be having fun." he chuckled.

Milo grew silent when he looked at some more.

"...something wrong, Milo?" Striker asked.

"These are pictures of a burned building," Milo replied. "Different aspects of a burned shop, it looks like."

_"...that's right,"_ Snap uttered, remembering. "_I took photos for evidence. That was Jill's shop right after Metal put out the fire."_

"…someone decided to burn her shop…?" Lock hummed. "Did anyone find out who did it?"

"_Dunno… but we got it all fixed up after a while!" _Tails Doll said. _"Who knows; once the tournament's over, maybe Jill and Joy can stay there again!"_

Ani gasped at another photo and tried to hide it.

"Now what?" asked Striker curiously, taking the photo from Ani. Then when his eyes laid upon it, they widened in horror. "...'Quit now, or else you're next'..." he uttered.

Snap snatched that from Striker. _"I took a picture of THAT?" _

Taking it from Snap, Lock hummed. "…when was this taken…?" he uttered.

_"...the day Jill went missing,"_ Snap murmured.

"Snap!" Ani yelled.

"...what?" Joy was taken aback to hear that. She thought that her mother had gone off to do an errand; at least, that's what Metal told her.

Snap covered his mouth. _"...oops..."_

…_oh, dear._ Lock thought, as he folded his arms, looking from the various people in the room. Right now, the atmosphere was heavy.

"...did...something bad happen to Mama?" Joy uttered in fear.

Looking at Joy, Tails Doll was at a loss for words. In desperation, the plushie glanced over at Ani for some help.

"...Joy," Ani went over to the little ewe and picked her up to hold her, getting that frightened look from the 3 year old still. "...listen...don't worry about whatever happened. Your mom came back, right? She was okay."

"...but...Metoh said..." Joy felt a little hurt right now. Did Metal tell a lie to her? "...he said..."

Ani sighed. "...Joy, he didn't say what he said to you to hurt your feelings. He said what he did so you wouldn't be scared, because he really cares about you..."

"…_yeah…"_ Tails Doll nodded, slowly fluttering over to Joy.

"...Metoh...cares about me?" Joy asked, growing a little less afraid.

Ani smiled a little. "He sure does."

"…_like you wouldn't believe!" _Tails Doll said a bit more cheerfully, planting himself on Joy's head.

Joy started to feel a little better, and a small smile appeared. "That's more like it," Ani said. "Don't ever worry Joy; Metal would never hurt you, and he'd never want to."

"…that's the truth." Lock nodded, as he folded his arms, directing his gaze away from the group.

"Hey!" Striker had a big smile on his face when he looked at a few of the photos; completely unaware that his outburst cut into the moment. "Professor Gerald's notes on the walls! You took the pictures after all, Snap!"

Ani would've scolded Striker, but then she felt like changing the subject would've been the best anyway.

"_Oooh, lemme see!" _Tails Doll called, quickly fluttering over to see this picture.

"They look so old, they're authentic!" Striker said. "Like hieroglyphics or something!"

_"...glad you like them,"_ Snap said.

"_Oooh, the professor's gonna be really happy about this!"_ Tails Doll chirped.

"But you know...I don't see very many photos of us," Milo murmured.

"...Yeah, I guess you were broken a lot since we've been here, huh Snap?" Striker murmured.

Snap examined himself and did a search within his systems to indicate any errors in there. Luckily, there weren't. _"Well, I'm not malfunctioning now," _he said.

"Hopefully, there shouldn't be any more of those." Lock said with a nod. "I'd say that you're as fit as when you were first activated, if not better."

"We need to take more pictures then," Striker said. "Especially ones of all of us hanging out together." He scratched his nose with a finger. "...too bad the tournament's tomorrow."

"What about a sleep over?" Ani suggested, making Striker beam brightly.

"Hey, yeah!"

"That sounds like a plan." Lock nodded. "Some of us could go and ask Jill and Metal if they would be okay with that, and we'd see how it would go."

"Okay," Striker said. "Lock, Tails Doll, and Snap, you guys can hold up the fort! Me, Ani, Milo, Joy and Captain Whisker will see if we can't find Jill!" And the bear was out of the room in mere seconds.

"Hey! Wait for us, Striker!" Milo called out, running after him.

Ani giggled, and set Joy down to her feet to pull her after them by hand.

"Later." Lock called, waving to the group as they left.

Once the group got outside, they saw Whisker standing by the railing, simply looking in their direction. "Be he fixed?" he hummed.

"He's all bettoh!" Joy said with the growing excitement of the group.

"And Striker suggested that we should have a sleepover on this ship," Ani chuckled. "So we're hoping you'd come with us to find Jill and ask if it's okay with her."

"A sleepover, eh?" Whisker hummed, before laughing. "Aye, that be an excellent idea!" he nodded. "Le's go!"

The group disembarked the ship, and immediately made their way from the docks toward town...

* * *

"Well, then you aught to let your friends know at least," Oblivion said. "We wouldn't want them to worry about you, right?" Coincidentally, the three of them had talked about having the same thing here in the cave; since Jack brought up the idea with Charon after the fiasco with Cal.

"Yeah; I'll make sure to tell them." Jack nodded. "…well, not about you guys; just that I'm camping outside tonight." he chuckled.

"Of course." Charon hummed. "You should hurry, though; there's no telling if Spiel or Krieg are down at the bottom of the path."

Oblivion took a peek outside. "…it's clear," she said. "Hurry along, now. And be careful."

"I will." Jack nodded, as he began heading down the path. "Later!"

As he watched Jack run off, Charon chuckled. "…I don't think I'll get used to his innocence for quite some time." he said jokingly.

"But even then, it's a nice change to have someone like him around," Oblivion added with a smile.

"Yes…" Charon nodded, as he went into the cave, sitting against the wall. "…it's… nice…" As he hummed, he closed his eyes.

_Back in town…_

"Oh yeah! I forgot that I needed to be at the pub for my shift!" Ani uttered frantically, running off. "I promise when my shift's done, I'll come back to the ship and join you guys!"

"Ani wait!" Striker called out suddenly, but the husky-wolf unfortunately couldn't stop for him.

"Don't worry Striker," Milo said, watching Ani disappear. "She'll come back, like she said."

"Look! There's Jack!" Joy exclaimed with a point. Indeed, the group spotted the lion heading towards them, waving at them.

"Found you guys!" he said with a smile.

"Well, that be someone I haven't seen in a while!" Whisker chuckled, as he folded his arms. "How has your day been?"

"I could ask you guys the same thing!" Jack laughed.

"We didn't get to play piwate," Joy said. "…but we got Snap all fixed up bettoh now!"

"And now we're just waiting for Metal and Jill so we can ask them if Joy can join our sleepover we're going to have on the ship," Striker added.

"You're gonna have a sleepover there?" Jack uttered, before grinning. "That sounds awesome!"

"Aye, it does!" Whisker laughed. "Why not join us, Jack?"

"…um…" Humming, Jack rubbed the back of his head. "…sorry, but I can't; I was thinking of camping outside tonight."

"…camping?" All of them looked at Jack questionably; Milo, not so much. He pretty much suspected what Jack was up to, and he wasn't going to push Jack with questions.

But the others didn't understand so well.

"…you're spending so much time exploring Jack," Striker said. "Just what're you doing?"

"Me?" Jack hummed, before smiling. "I'm checking the island out! It's huge!"

"…but ye've been goin' all over th' island fer the last three days." Whisker noted.

"It's because there's so much to see!" Jack said. "I'm telling you, all of us need to go exploring when the tournament's done!"

"…you've been 'splorin' without us?" Joy asked sadly.

"Ah- not everywhere!" Jack suddenly said. "Look, I promise that I'll take you all exploring when the tournament's over, alright?"

"…does this mean you won't be able to see the tournyment t'morrow?" Joy supposed.

"Ah…" Jack began, though he found that he stumbled on his words, as he scratched the back of his head. Not that he wanted to keep lying to his friends, but he supposed that Oblivion and Charon wouldn't be able to see the tournament at all, and he _didn't _want to make them feel lonely…

Milo tried to think of a way to redirect the attention away from Jack. He set a hand on Joy's shoulder and she looked up to him. "I'm sure he'll try to make it if he can, Joy," Milo told her.

"…yeah!" Jack nodded. "I'll try getting there."

"Well, lookie here." Everyone turned and caught sight of Metal and Jill heading their way.

"Hi Mama!" Joy said, brightening up immediately.

"Oh, hiya!" Jack called, waving at the two.

"Hello, there." Metal chuckled, waving at the group. "Are you all done playing for the day?" he presumed.

"Actually, we wanted to ask you guys something," Milo said.

Then Joy jumped in. "They're gonna have a sleepova at the piwate ship, Mama! An' I wanna go!"

Jill chuckled, and thought about it.

"…sleepover, huh…" Metal hummed, rubbing his chin in thought as well.

"Can I Mama?" Joy asked hopefully.

"Well..." Joy had spent quite a few days away from Jill, and she wasn't used to being apart from her so much. Part of her was almost a little worried of letting Joy sleep over with them.

"If you're worried at all," Milo cut in, sensing some uneasiness in Jill, "we promise that we'll keep a close eye on her. Not only that, but Lock's going to be with us. We'll be safe."

"...if you promise to keep an eye on her," Jill said, smiling. "Then I'll let her go."

All of them cheered.

"Alright!" Whisker laughed, as he raised his right hand. "Everyone, let's head back! We're gonna have th' best sleepover in th' world!"

* * *

It was the late evening now.

Ani ran through town that night, just trying to erase the bad images out of her head.

Tonight, Metal and Jill decided to drop by the bar, and Ani thought it would be a fun little experiment to see if alcohol could affect Metal, so they tried to get him drunk. It worked.

And Ani was never sorrier that she did that than she was now.

What was even worse was that she got Jill to have one or two drinks as well, and it was hard enough to drag the babbling two off to a spare room in the back. While that would have been just fine with anyone else, Ani had learned something very surprising this night.

Metal and Jill…together?

Metal Sonic, whom was once an evil machine created by Dr. Eggman, with Jill? It was just such an unlikely pairing. First, she didn't approve of them working together all those years ago, and warmed up to it, and then they became friends. Ani was caught up with the drama to really have any opinion on the fact that they went from enemies to friends.

But being friends to...

That was just too weird for Ani.

As she finally reached the ship, she noticed someone sitting on the railing, simply looking down at her. "…done with your shift?" Lock hummed.

"Yep," Ani answered. "I hope the boys didn't start the fun without me!"

"They've been waiting for you." Lock said with a nod. "It's been set up, but the festivities aren't going to begin until you get down there."

"Great! Thanks!" Ani said with a smile, heading inside the ship as quickly as possible to find them. With a slight chuckle, Lock decided to follow her.

When Ani slowed down to a certain door, she wasn't given any chance to open it herself, for it burst open and someone grabbed her. "Supwise!" Joy exclaimed with loud giggles. "You made it Ani!"

"_We hope you like it!"_ Tails Doll cheered, fluttering around Ani and Joy.

Once he got to the same door, Lock peeked in to see how everything was set up. A lot of work had certainly gone into setting this up. Several beds had been huddled together to make it look like one massive bed, and there were at least five table-loads of various foods spread out over merely two tables. Sitting around the table were the others, who were looking right at Joy, Ani and Lock entering the room.

"This looks great, guys!" Ani said, smiling.

"We're just glad you made it Ani," Striker replied, while Ani joined them by the tables.

With a chuckle, Lock sat down by the tables as well.

"Alright, me maties, let's dig in!" Whisker called, giving everyone a nod.

"Yes!" Striker was the first to grab various foods from the table and chow down.

"Save some for the rest of us." Lock quipped with a chuckle, as he began eating as well.

"That's Striker for you," Ani giggled.

* * *

Running up the mountain path again, Jack glanced up at the night sky, a small frown on his face._ …sorry, Joy… but I don't want Oblivion and Charon to be all alone… _Once he got all the way up to the cave, he looked around to see if Oblivion was anywhere in sight.

"Pssst," A voice whispered to get his attention. "Over here, Jack!" Oblivion happened to be standing at the mouth of the cave; she too, keeping her eyes peeled around, to make sure Jack was alone.

"…oooh, hi, Oblivion." Jack whispered back, walking silently towards the unicorn. "Why are we whispering?" he inquired.

"Charon's asleep," Oblivion said. "That, and I don't want anyone else to hear us..."

"Oh, okay…" Jack nodded. "…but I don't think you're gonna be heard by anyone else; when I went up here, I didn't see anyone by the bottom of the path. I think everyone's gone off to do some last-minute training before the tournament…"

"Let's hope that's the case then," Oblivion said. "Come on in."

Jack nodded, as he entered the cave, where he could see Charon sleeping on his own against the wall. "…he looks really peaceful…"

Oblivion sighed. "You could say that again..."

Squatting down, Jack simply looked at Charon. "…how'd you two meet, again?" he hummed.

"...well, it wasn't the most pleasant meeting," Oblivion said. "I was walking through the countryside by myself..."

She could imagine how it happened as she started telling Jack the story.

_Like she had said before, she was taking a stroll through the countryside alone around wintertime. The gray sky sprinkled on the blankets of snow all around with a cold chill in the wind._

_It wasn't a leisurely walk in the park; she was actually getting away from some troubles that she just recently had. Oblivion didn't have a very happy journey through life herself. It had always been about being lied to, back-stabbed, and the only way she got away from it was to erase the memories of ever knowing her._

_The most recent trouble she had was with a guy. She started to like him, but he started pressuring her into doing things she didn't want to do. It got to a point where he was about to force her against her will, and she did what she always did. Erase his memories of her, and walk away. That didn't mean she didn't like him, and she wiped away hurt tears as she walked alone through the snow. _

_Eventually, she spotted traces of red dotting in the white. The red seemed to lead on a path somewhere, and the further it got, the more red covered the snow._

_Oblivion was bewildered at this, and the stench even grew stronger as she followed the red trail. "...That smells like blood," she murmured under her breath shakily._

_After a while, she reached the source of the red trail, and it was not a pretty sight. _

_A large, draconic Mobian was lying in the middle of the snowy field, having apparently collapsed due to loss of blood, which was what covered the snow around him. His breath was slow and weak, and with the massive amounts of cuts, gashes and bruises on his body, needless to say, someone had been excessively brutal against him._

_Even a blind person could tell that he was dying._

_Oblivion was horrified at that sight, utterly speechless. Letting out a low growl, the creature winced; the falling snow didn't do his injuries any favors._

_"Alright," Oblivion gasped when she heard a voice, and saw someone approaching this creature with a bloodied knife in their hand; presumably someone who had some influence on the creature's condition. "Now, let's make sure that you never see daylight again..."_

_Then when they raised the knife, Oblivion blurted out in fear. "Wait!"_

_Hearing that voice, the creature blinked, weakly glancing at Oblivion, not having expected anyone to even bother with aiding him._

_The Mobian turned to Oblivion viciously. "Get lost!" He was a dark green woodpecker, and mostly covered in blood. It was hard to say if it was the creature's blood, or his own blood, because the woodpecker had some scars on himself,_

_"Hurting and killing someone who's defenseless?" Oblivion uttered. "Where's your sense of respect?"_

_"I'll have you know that this monster is FAR from defenseless!" the woodpecker barked back at her. Growling weakly, the creature began clawing himself forward from where he lied, trying his best to get away from the scene, even in his condition. Unfortunately, the woodpecker noticed him crawl away. "Don't think so!" he roared, aiming to scratch at him with the knife-_

_-that is, until Oblivion grabbed his wrist. "You leave him alone!" she yelled._

_The woodpecker fought to direct the knife at her. "I'll take you down too, then! Ain't nothing gonna stop me from killing-" and the woodpecker was cut off when Oblivion grabbed him by the head; feeding a white glow to it. "...w-what are you doing?" he uttered._

_"...I have no quarrel with you," Oblivion uttered, watching the woodpecker loose resistance against her. "...just relax..." The woodpecker's eyes shut, and he fell to the ground with knife in hand._

_Seeing this, the creature stopped trying to crawl away, as he simply looked back at Oblivion with a curious expression. Oblivion looked back at the creature, sadly looking at the injuries. She had to help him...there was no way he would survive on his own; with that in mind, she slowly inched toward him as a means not to startle him._

_Letting out a low growl, the creature simply watched the unicorn inch towards him. He assumed that she wanted to help him… but he couldn't risk repeating his mistakes. In spite of that, he didn't move; whether it was some form of fear of her doing to him what she did to the woodpecker, or because his body simply wouldn't obey him, he didn't know._

_"...it's okay..." she muttered gently to comfort him, getting closer. "...I'm not going to hurt you."_

_Growling, the creature tilted his head, calming down a little._

_"...you're gravely hurt..." she said, right next to him now. "...and I want to help you."_

_Looking up at her, the creature winced. "…why…?" he uttered._

_She was a little side-tracked because she didn't expect him to talk. "...because you'll die if I don't help you," Oblivion said, reaching to touch the creature at a place on his shoulder where there wasn't a wound on him._

_Growling, he looked away from Oblivion. "…why not… just let me die…?" he uttered._

_"...how could you say that?" Oblivion asked sadly. Did this creature really want to die?_

"…_I'm… a monster…" he growled, closing his eyes. "…I… only end up… hurting others…" Just after he said that, he suddenly began coughing, as blood shot out from his mouth._

_"...c'mon," Oblivion took the creature by the hands. "...can you stand?"_

"…_I… don't know…" the creature uttered, wincing as she took hold of him._

_Amazingly enough, she somehow helped him up to a stand on his two feet, and she continued to hold him to keep him up. "...I have a cottage not too far from here," she said. "I'll take you there, so you aren't freezing out here in the cold."_

_The creature didn't reply, as he simply looked down at Oblivion._

_Oblivion started with a few steps to make sure the creature could handle it. Wincing, the creature managed to hold himself on his feet, letting Oblivion take him away._

"...so Charon and I finally made it back to my cottage, and he stayed there for a little over a month while I nursed him back to health," Oblivion continued.

"…wow…" Jack hummed, as he simply looked at the sleeping Charon. "…he's gone through a lot, huh…"

"We both have gone through our share of troubles," Oblivion said. "I'm just glad that I saved him that day..."

"Mhm…" Jack hummed, looking at Charon. "…even though he looks peaceful… he seems kind of lonely, sleeping on his own…"

Oblivion tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"…I dunno." Jack mused, tilting his own head. "He just seems like he'd be happier if someone slept next to him…"

"...hm..." Oblivion yawned, coincidentally feeling tired. Deciding to entertain Jack's idea, she came over and settled down next to Charon. Even in his sleep, Charon seemed to sense someone settling down by him. With a small growl of content, one of his heads gently rested against Oblivion's shoulder.

"…hey, what do you know…" Jack chuckled.

Oblivion smiled a little, and her head nestled on that head while she closed her eyes. It only made her more grateful that she rescued him. In a way...she needed him almost as much as he needed her. After all, he had been one of the first whose memories she didn't have to erase. He was one of her first true friends.

Seeing her close her eyes like that, Jack smiled, as he glanced out of the cave, looking at the sky. _…thank goodness that you're you, Jack… if anyone found out that I suggested that, I'd never live it down, _someone else thought for him, as he settled down by the wall, closing his own eyes. _Still… you've sure made some friends…_

* * *

**_Le-gasp! Even I didn't see that one coming 0.o_**


	5. Alpha vs Chaotix

**_Yay! Last chapter for Training!_**

**_

* * *

_**

_**Day One**_

_**

* * *

**_

"**WOOOO!** _We're training for a tournament! We're training for a tournament! We're training for a tournament! We're tra-"_

"RUDY!" Boomer screamed irritably. Seriously, how could a 15 year old like him retain the hyperactivity he's had since he was 10? And having the kangaroo hop circles around her like this wasn't helping her patience in the slightest. So she grabbed him by the collar of his sweatshirt to halt him. "Would you hold still for one cotton-picking minute?"

"But Boomer, we're not picking cotton, we're training!" Rudy corrected, joking of course. Rudy could never be as naive as Jack; not that he would say that aloud either.

"That's right Boomer," Charmy chuckled, adding in. "We're training."

"Hey, you're no help," Boomer grumbled with a finger pointed at her Captain. "You're the one who encourages this kind of behavior in him!"

"Well, maybe he thinks it'd be better to be child-like and carefree than to be too grouchy?" Natal presumed with a slight giggle.

"Alright, now we've got to wait for Wiper and Sonia, and we can get started, y'know." Newt nodded.

"Yeah, what's taking them so _**looong?**_" whined Rudy with an unbelivably high pitched voice.

"I wouldn't call it carefree, but that's definitely child-like," Boomer grumbled, twisting a finger in her ear to soothe the ache from Rudy's noise.

"I'm sure we won't have to wait for very much longer Rudy," Cal assured; trying to hide the fact that he was also a little annoyed by Rudy's commotion.

"…sorry for the holdup." At that point, two characters approached the group, each of them ready for training. "I presume that you're all ready?" Wiper hummed.

"You bet, Wiper!" Newt nodded, slamming his fists together.

"That's good to know!" Sonia chuckled, as she rubbed her hands together. "So, just what do we have planned?"

"Oooooh, I've got something planned!" That was when Boomer grabbed Rudy and shook her fist right at his face. "I'm going to pound the snot out of-"

"For goodness sake, Boomer, calm down," Charmy chuckled uneasily, wrestling Rudy free out of her grip. Rudy jumped behind Charmy for cover, sticking out his tongue at the duck tauntingly, and Boomer started chasing the kangaroo madly; the two of them running swift circles around the old bee. He stood there, sighing of frustration while listening to the screams and laughs of Rudy, and threatening curses from Boomer.

"If I may cut in," Cal snatched up Rudy and held Boomer back with a hand-like foot, having solved the issue of the chase for now. "Honestly, I don't know what's gotten into you two."

"I guess they're just eager to get started." Natal giggled.

"You know, I think Boomer and Rudy got a good training program right there." Sonia chuckled, folding her arms.

"I don't think it's so good!" protested Rudy, who tried not to look at the scowls that Boomer shot at him.

"Now, now, I believe I have a suggestion for our method of training," Charmy pulled a hat out of his vest with a smile. "We're going to be random."

"Do tell," Rudy said, at the feet of his Captain with all ears to listen to the words he had to say. The very word 'random' just rang wisdom to the kangaroo's ears.

"I'm going to throw our names into this hat, then each of us draws a name," Charmy says. "Whichever name you pick will be your opponent for the day."

"...well, how exactly would that work fair?" Boomer asked. "There isn't really an even number of us; that's if you're not fighting Captain, and I highly doubt you would. One of us would be left out."

"Nothing wrong with that, right?" Charmy said. "Besides, it isn't going to be entirely random. It will be team against team. The Chaotix members are going to pick a name from team Alpha, and of course, I'll throw your name in too, Sonia. Last name not chosen can just sit and watch the battles."

"That sounds like a plan." Wiper nodded.

"…hey, you guys are training for the tournament, right?"

Hearing that voice, Sonia glanced over her shoulder. That allowed her to spot a red scorpion walking towards them, who waved one of her pincer-hands at them. "…you know, Captain…" she hummed, before looking back at the bee. "…I figure that we might have an even amount of fighters after all, today."

"Well look at that," Charmy said with a smile.

"We sure are!" Rudy answered the scorpion's question while hopping around her. "You're more than welcome to join us if you want!"

"Really?" the scorpion hummed, before giving Rudy a nod. "Cool!"

"…Ruki, wasn't it?" Sonia hummed out of curiosity, eying the scorpion.

"Yeah; that's it." Ruki nodded. "So, what method of training did you all decide on?"

"We pick names out of a hat and fight the person whose name we picked," Cal briefed.

"Right, and for the sake of this little exercise, we'll pretend that Ruki is part of the Chaotix, and Sonia is part of Alpha, evening the numbers," Charmy said, ripping up a sheet of paper which he had written Wiper, Natal, Newt, and Sonia's names on. Then he tossed them into the hat, and bounced it to shuffle up the names. Everyone waited on their sparring partners.

The first one Charmy offered the hat to was Rudy, and he looked in while reaching in. Then Charmy smacked him. "No peeking, Rudy," he reminded, so Rudy averted his eyes while he stuck his hand in. Then he beamed when he saw the name on the paper.

"I got your name, Newt!" he said.

"Oh, really, now?" Newt chuckled. "Let's make sure to get a lot of trainin' in, y'know!"

Next was Boomer, and when she looked at the name she picked out, she glanced at Sonia. "Looks like you're my sparring partner today, Sonia."

"Really?" Sonia hummed, tapping her foot against the ground. "This could be fun."

Cal was up next, and he chuckled when he saw the name he got. "Well, it's you and me Natal."

"Hey, no fair!" Rudy complained with a point at Cal. "He gets to fight his girlfriend!" that remark made Cal turn a little red, and he tried to hide it; especially from Ruki who was just a newcomer. Natal, too, turned a bit red, trying to hide it whilst giggling nervously.

Ruki, however, didn't seem to mind that comment, as she looked at Wiper. "This means that I'll be taking you on!"

"I suppose it does, Ruki." Wiper nodded, hissing a tad. "We're all set, then?"

"Yep we're ready!" Rudy said.

"Now Captain," Boomer began, "would we take turns, or would all of us fight at the same time?"

Charmy shrugged his shoulders. "Your choice."

"Let's all fight at the same time!" Rudy exclaimed, bouncing up and down with energy.

"Hell yeah!" Newt yelled in approval, pumping his fists in the air.

Wiper chuckled, as he shook his head. "Even if we're going to fight at the same time, I don't think we should crowd together in one area. Let's split up."

"Me and Newt will see if there's any more room around Music Square!" Rudy said. He didn't even bother with Newt's input either; he just grabbed the salamander's arm and tugged.

Although, Newt was much stronger than Rudy was, and Rudy wasn't even able to make him budge no matter how much he tried to pull. This just made others in the group chuckle. Newt began heading off with Rudy in tow. "Come on, Rudy; we're gonna get ahead of everyone by miles!"

"Oh, is that so?" Sonia quipped, before she suddenly grabbed hold of Boomer, pulling her in the opposite direction of where Newt and Rudy were heading. "Come on; we can stop by my place to train there!"

"Whoa! Hey! I can walk, you know!" Boomer uttered, catching up so that Sonia didn't have to pull her.

"We'll take the woods for some espionage combat, since the trees make good cover," Cal said. "That'll leave you guys here, if that's fine?"

"That's alright with me," Charmy said, and then he turned to Ruki and Wiper. "How about you two?"

"I'm okay with it." Wiper said with a nod. Glancing over at Ruki, he saw that she nodded, too.

"Right; let's move, Cal." Natal said with a nod to him, before she leaped ahead of him, right into the woods. Cal disappeared almost as quickly as she did, following where she went. Since everyone scattered to their designated areas, Charmy contently went to a nearby bench and took a seat.

"You two are free to start, whenever," he said.

Nodding, both of them looked at each other, Wiper raising his left hand in preparation, and Ruki snapping her pincers together. "…ready?" Ruki chuckled.

"Ready." Wiper nodded, before the two ran at each other.

* * *

"Alright tough guy!" Rudy exclaimed right in the middle of the town square, which definitely garnered the attention of the others around. "Put up them ol' fisticuffs!" Rudy's fists circled back and forth eagerly with some jabs in the air, trying to look tough for Newt.

Chuckling, Newt cracked his knuckles whilst looking down at Rudy. "Alright, Rudy; time to show me what you've got, y'know!"

"Right!" Rudy wound up a fist and threw it right at Newt.

Though it hit, it didn't do too much. "Come on; give it everything you got, y'know!" Newt called.

Rudy kept right on punching persistently, but it still didn't look like it was doing much, and Rudy didn't seem aware of it. Those around them started giggling and chuckling in amusement. Newt could only look down at Rudy, before looking around in slight embarrassment. _Geez… I can't begin punching him until I actually feel some pain…_

Rudy finally noticed that he wasn't doing much to Newt. "You're tougher than I thought..." So he leaned back on his large tail, and used it like a spring to launch himself, throwing both his feet at Newt.

Surprisingly, this had some serious impact.

This kick sent Newt skidding back a few feet, taking him off his guard. "…well, that was some trick!" he laughed, before raising his fists. "Now we can get really serious, y'know!"

Rudy started hopping again, raising his own fists and raring to go. "...incoming!" Rudy was hopping at Newt, and spun around to hit him with his large tail.

"Hoo!" Seeing that, Newt was quick to raise his arm to block that from hitting him, before aiming a punch at Rudy.

Rudy jumped away from Newt's punch instantly, and hopped right back at him with another springing kick. This time, Newt had the courtesy to avoid the incoming kick, before aiming another set of punches at the kangaroo. Rudy was up on his tail, blocking the punches with his feet.

Those around them crowded, finding the fight interesting.

With a small grin, Newt cupped his hands together, before he aimed an even stronger attack at Rudy, by smashing his hands into him.

It knocked Rudy off balance on his tail, "Whoa!" and he rolled over back onto his feet as a smooth recovery. Then he swept his tail around underneath Newt's feet in attempt to trip him.

"Whoa!" Newt called, as the tail successfully tripped him; however, before he could hit the ground, he planted his hands down on the ground, vaulting himself so that instead of crashing into the ground, he got back on his feet, before shaking his head. "Close one…"

"Aw," Rudy moaned. Then he bounced again, but each bounce sent him higher and higher. Eventually, he shot up into the air like a rocket, soaring above everyone to their awe. It was hard to see the kangaroo without having to shield their eyes from the sun.

"….weeeEEEEEEEE!" Rudy wailed, aiming to land right on Newt with his feet.

"Hn?" Seeing that, Newt quickly rolled out of the way before Rudy could land on him. "Man, that's one trick, y'know!"

"You ain't gonna see no rabbit hop like that, that's for sure!" Rudy said, still jumping around. His cheery joke managed to get some chuckles out of people.

"I bet I won't." Newt chuckled, as he glanced at Rudy's feet. "…hey, by the way, your shoelaces aren't tied, y'know."

"What?" Rudy actually looked down and everyone laughed.

…_that was too easy, y'know._ Newt thought with a sigh, before he took advantage of Rudy's lowered defenses, knocking him on the head.

Rudy fell over and lied there with closed eyes, appearing to be knocked out from that blow. In reality, he was just pretending, to see what Newt would do about it. However, Newt didn't seem to buy it. "Don't try anythin' smart, y'know; I know that I didn't punch you that hard!"

"Aw," Rudy groaned, sitting up. He was hoping to make an opening for himself, but Newt was too hard to trick. With a spring of his tail, he was up and he bounced off his feet over Newt. Then he landed on his tail and tried to kick Newt from behind. Newt counted on that, as he suddenly spun his arm around to block the kick, before aiming a punch right at Rudy. Rudy was knocked back again, but he only rebounded by his tail. The difference was that instead of a kick, Rudy launched himself at Newt with both fists.

"Hn?" Seeing that startled Newt, which resulted in him taking a couple of punches to the face, sending him staggering back. "…nice rebound!" he laughed, before aiming another smash at Rudy. Rudy was knocked back again, but this time he had the smarts to grab Newt in the middle of it and take him down with him. Then he bounced on his tail with a back flip, and while still holding to Newt, slammed him right back down on the ground with his feet.

"OOF!" That knocked the air right out of Newt, as he quickly tried recovering, shooting Rudy a glance.

"I didn't hurt you too bad, did I Newt?" Rudy asked, bouncing up at down again. He STILL had so much energy.

"…no, I've had worse, Rudy." Newt chuckled, wiping his lips, before getting to his feet. "I'm still rarin' to go, y'know!"

"Good!" Rudy said with a big smile. "Because I could go on **ALLLLLLLLLLLLL** day!"

* * *

"So you live in a cabin?" Boomer asked Sonia.

"Yep." Sonia chuckled, glancing around the area as she and Boomer were walking through the woods. "I was one of the first ones to arrive on Safe Haven once King and his buddies set up shop, along with a few others. I wasn't too comfortable with crowds at the time, so I set up a small cabin in the woods." Then, she grinned. "Of course, I'm a hell of a lot more comfy around crowds now than I was all those years ago, but I still like living in that cabin; it's cozy."

"I bet," Boomer said. A cabin in the woods did sound pretty nice, especially for being on an island. "What exactly was Safe Haven like for your first time, when it was just starting up as oppose to how it is now?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, it's totally different from when a new recruit comes here these days." Sonia hummed, glancing at Boomer. "You know most of the town, including the arena and everything?" she said, before snapping her fingers. "None of it was around. The only thing we had at first was, like, one building that everyone slept in."

"Wow, bet it was rough," Boomer murmured, remembering her own experiences of living in a single building with a crowd of people; say, 5 years ago when everyone stayed at the old Chaotix HQ.

"Yeah, it sucked a bit; especially with people like Hank and Will around…" Sonia murmured, letting out a sigh. "…you know, I just remembered the weirdest thing; the first one who suggested that we should make more buildings, along with actively building a few of them… was Spiel." she hummed.

"Huh...I didn't know Spiel was around that long too," Boomer mused to herself. "...but he suggested it, huh?"

"Yeah." Sonia nodded. "It's just weird… I mean, the guy's without mercy, only cares about what he gains in the end… but he's just so damn jovial and friendly about everything. He even drew the blueprints for some of the buildings and the arena for King to build!"

"..sounds suspicious to anyone with a brain cell," Boomer remarked. "But my guess is that no one has the dirt on him?"

"No; he managed to keep nearly everyone fooled the first year, before we got the first batch of new recruits." Sonia murmured, folding her arms. "After that, he spent far more time tinkering with his own devices, getting unsuspecting soldiers to join him… and since he got Krieg as his right-hand man, it's become even worse; it's nearly impossible for anyone who isn't Sage to pinpoint him. He just comes and goes as he pleases."

"...I wouldn't be letting him walk around so freely without being watched carefully," Boomer said. "Especially when there's children on this island." All she could think of was Joy, but she didn't know if there were actually other soldiers with children here...it was something to consider.

"The thing is, we've _tried_ keeping an eye on him, but he's just too inconspicuous." Sonia sighed. "We can't exactly lock him down, since he hasn't done anything too cruel, like Diablo or Hex would've. He's a wild card; absolutely unpredictable." Then, she shook her head. "I do wonder what goes on in his head at times…"

"Probably disturbing kinds of thoughts that I wouldn't want to know about," Boomer said flatly. "I'll leave the mind reading to Sage, thank you."

"That's probably the best course of action." Sonia nodded, as she looked ahead of them. "…well, what do you know; here we are!"

Indeed; before them was a nice, big cabin, resting conveniently enough by a small lake.

"Well, isn't that a sight for sore eyes?" Boomer smiled, setting her hands on her hips as she admired the view.

"It sure is." Sonia nodded, as she looked at her home with a smile. "It's the perfect hideout for when I just need some time on my own… of course, many recruits would be _dying_ to come inside…" As she spoke, she trailed off, letting out a longing sigh.

Boomer blinked her eyes at her. "...what's that supposed to mean?"

"…hn?" Blinking, Sonia shook her head. "Oh, I was just… thinking of when I first invited Wiper over to my house…"

"...oh, really now?" Boomer had a smug look on her face, folding her arms.

"Oh, it was the best thing!" Sonia practically swooned, holding a hand close to her face. "After we got done with sparring in the arena, I took him to my cabin, and all the way there, we talked about so much… I think we actually got lost a few times, since we were so caught up with talking to each other." she chuckled.

"How funny," Boomer chuckled, interested in what else she had to say. After all, it wasn't every day that Wiper spends time with a girl.

"Alright, so we finally got to my cabin- and we were still talking. Can you believe it?" Sonia giggled. "So, anyway, we go inside, and I offer him a cup of tea, along with something to eat, and he said yes. So, not only did I end up making tea… I ended up making a full-blown dinner for the two of us!"

"Uh-huh," Boomer said, with a smug look still on her face.

"Now, I'll tell you right now; I'm no cook." Sonia chuckled. "But even still, Wiper really enjoyed what I made!" Then, she blushed madly, clasping her hands against her cheeks. "Then… the moment was just perfect… he and I didn't talk or eat… we just looked at each other… inching closer and closer… and then…"

Boomer waited for her to continue; growing more curious at the suspense of this.

"…and then…" Sonia uttered, blushing even more than before. "…we sat down and played 50 rounds of chess nonstop!"

Boomer was silent; trying to process was just happened. "...wait, what?" That wasn't what she was expecting at all; she was so taken aback by the sheer stupidity of this that she tripped on a root sticking out of the ground from a nearby tree.

"I swear, I'm not making it up!" Sonia said in an absolutely blissful tone. "I could've sworn that we played much longer, but we played chess like no man or woman had done before! I have to admit, I'm not that good at chess, but I actually managed to come out on top quite a few times! Even Wiper was impressed sometimes!"

Boomer just stared at her in disbelief. Was she really supposed to believe this? Just the way Sonia described it, needless to say, it didn't really _sound_ like few, plain, simple games of chess. Heck, it didn't sound like chess at all. Then Boomer shook her head, chastising herself for letting her thoughts drift off like that in the first place.

"After the last round, both of us were so pooped that we both practically fainted on the futon." Sonia said, not noticing Boomer's brief gesture. "But since then, every chance Wiper could get to come over to my place, we've played chess a lot; just about every chance we got, we'd play chess together. He even gave me pointers on how to improve my game! Isn't he just the best?"

"...I didn't even know Wiper was so interested in chess," Boomer mumbled, no longer interested in hearing the story.

"He's practically a prodigy at it!" Sonia laughed. "Man, oh man, was that enjoyable… you know, we did talk about going all the way, but he said that he didn't feel ready for that, yet. Isn't that just cute?"

"...yeah," Boomer muttered dryly. "...well, anyhow, we'd better get to sparring. Don't want to be left behind in the tournament, right?"

Nodding, Sonia got in a fighting stance, nodding to Boomer. "Ready?"

"Sure am," Boomer sure was relieved to get to the fighting at last. She was so eager, in fact, that she ran and made the first kick at Sonia. However, that kick was blocked by Sonia lifting her leg, before she quickly spun around to deliver a kick of her own, aimed right for Boomer's side. It hit, but once Boomer hit the ground, she somersaulted her way back on her feet. Then she threw a punch. Smirking, Sonia raised one of her legs to block the punch, keeping the two at a standstill. Suddenly, she dropped into a handstand, using her other leg to perform a sweeping kick aimed at Boomer's legs, to trip her.

Boomer made a fast recovery after being tripped. "I swear...you guys and your acrobats," she grumbled under her breath. Personally, she was more for strength than agility, and she rushed at Sonia to slam her shoulder in.

As she tried that, however, Sonia simply stepped out of the way with an elegant step, placing one hand on her hip whilst raising her other arm in the air. "…that's not all you can do, I hope." she chuckled.

Boomer growled a little. Then her eyes caught something on the ground that made her grin, picking it up. "Well lookie here," She chuckled. Her hands got dirty immediately from what she was carrying, which was mud. Then she shot Sonia an evil look.

Seeing that, Sonia made a slight gasp; not that it actually scared her, but because she knew what that look meant.

Mischief brewing.

"…now what are we planning on doing with that?" she said with a smirk and a clever tone.

"I think this'll look good..." Boomer ran at Sonia, "...on your face!" and she tossed as much mud as she could at Sonia. It impacted instantly, covering Sonia's face in mud within seconds.

"…oh, it's on." she chuckled, before she suddenly tackled Boomer, causing both of them to skid right into the mud, dirtying them further.

"That's more like it!" Boomer snickered, grabbing Sonia's arm and twisting it behind her back, pinning her down. Nothing like good old mud wrestling.

As Boomer did that, however, she failed to pay attention to her own back, as something suddenly wrapped around it. "You need to be more careful." Sonia chuckled, as she managed to lift herself up, pinning Boomer down onto the ground; having wrapped her legs around Boomer while she was focused on pinning the rattlesnake down.

"Just how can you bend like that?" Boomer asked. "That ain't right..." So she tried to struggle out of Sonia's hold on her.

"I'm really flexible." Sonia chuckled, pressing her finger against Boomer's beak, "comes with my dancing lessons." Then, quicker than Boomer could comprehend, Sonia had turned her completely around, so she was face-first in the mud. "Surrender!" she laughed whilst doing so.

Boomer spat out mud, and only chuckled. "Okay, if you can make me eat mud, then I'll surrender for now..."

"That's what I wanna hear." Sonia chuckled, as she got off Boomer, pulling her to her feet. "Jeez, imagine what the guys would've said if they saw us there."

"Their minds would've turned this into something sick and twisted through their point of view, that's for sure," Boomer said, flicking her arms to shake off mud.

"True enough." Sonia chuckled, as she glanced at Boomer. "…you know, we should probably wash up before we continue training."

"What's the matter?" Boomer teased. "You don't want to keep fighting like this?" Boomer actually didn't mind being covered in mud. She was like Ani in some ways; a bit of a tomboy.

"Not that I don't mind…" Sonia chuckled, before pricking Boomer's beak. "…but we should at least do something, considering the state of our clothes."

"True," Boomer said, shrugging. "At least it's a good thing we're close to your place."

"…you know..." Sonia hummed, as she rubbed her chin. "…yeah, that works." she eventually nodded, before grinning. "Alright, when we're done sparring, I've got a surprise for you, Boomer!"

Boomer's head cocked in more curiosity. "…and what would that be?"

"It's a surprise." Sonia said with her tongue sticking out. "Now… fight!" Before Boomer could react, Sonia grabbed hold of her and caused both of them to topple right back into the mud. It wasn't until after Boomer was knocked into the mud that Boomer had the nerve to place her foot on Sonia's stomach and kick her off.

Once on her feet, Boomer spun with a roundhouse kick at Sonia. "Hoo!" However, Sonia quickly bent her back to the point where Boomer's kick didn't even connect, before she grabbed the incoming leg, slamming the duck right back into the mud.

Boomer spat out more mud, getting a little frustrated now. On her jump back onto her feet again, she wound up a hard punch aimed for Sonia's gut. It knocked the air out of the rattlesnake, but not for long, as she quickly grabbed hold of Boomer's arm with her own leg, somehow twisting it around. "Say uncle!" Sonia taunted.

"Wha—AGH!" Boomer yelped because it hurt when her arm was twisted.

"Saaaay uncle!" Sonia taunted, making sure not to twist too hard on Boomer's arm, but just enough to keep her in place.

Boomer grinded her teeth to cope with the pain.

Until finally…

"…okay, uncle! UNCLE!"

"Booya!" Sonia laughed, as she let go of Boomer's arm, before folding her own. "Gotcha good there, didn't I?"

"I'll get you next time," Boomer said, pointing a finger at her. "Just you wait."

"No offense, but I have my doubts, Boomer." Sonia chuckled, placing a hand on Boomer's shoulder. "Nearly five years of hanging with King's gang, along with my exquisite knowledge of dancing… I'd say you're a bit outclassed, GUN training or not."

Boomer folded her arms in a huff. "...I bet I'd still beat you in arm wrestling."

"I doubt that we'll be allowed to arm wrestle to settle the tournament, though…" Sonia chuckled.

Boomer pouted. "...so," softening from frustration, her focus changed. "What's this surprise?"

"Oh, ready for that, already?" Sonia hummed, glancing back at Boomer. "…well, we should get ourselves cleaned up, before I tell you."

"...fine," and Boomer went ahead for Sonia's cabin.

* * *

Standing on a tree branch on her own, Natal kept her arms folded and eyes closed, listening to the sounds around her. _…he'll try and attack me in three… two…_

The leaves rustled swiftly with a sudden gust of air, heading toward Natal. Without opening her eyes, Natal leaped off the branch, without even looking down at the invisible being that had tried getting her. This same invisible being started to follow her through the trees. Finally, she opened her eyes, simply focusing on heading through the woods.

The chase proceeded for a long while. Then, Natal no longer heard the swift currents of air from behind. That didn't stop her from advancing, however. _He's trying to ambush me. _she thought.

Just as Natal suspected, the path ahead of her was cut off by a sudden gust through the leaves. Rather than head right through, Natal quickly stopped, leaping a distance back whilst looking ahead of her. Natal managed to avoid whatever danger was after her, because some branches plucked off and fell down below right in front of her. The gust went around a tree, and came from behind Natal.

Quickly, Natal used her tongue to draw out one of her swords, before using it to parry whatever was coming from behind her. The metal of her blade clashed with something, and this invisible force kept pushing down against her blade persistently.

In spite of this force pushing against her sword, Natal didn't budge, as she reached for another sword she had. Once she unsheathed it, she spun around, slashing that sword against the force along with her tongue.

Whatever force pushing against her jumped backward, and finally this invisible foe appeared out of thin air. Cal held steady to the branch with his hand-like feet, katana's drawn. Retracting her tongue, Natal simply looked at Cal , without losing her stance.

Cal finally made a move with a forward swing. Ducking underneath that swing, Natal quickly drew her last sword, before she aimed a swing at Cal with the blade she now held within her mouth. Cal parried that, and tried another swing. Swiftly blocking that with the sword in her left hand, Natal attempted to swing at him with sword in her right hand. Cal blocked that one with one of his blades, and took another swipe at her with the other her other blade as well, Natal blocked this strike, rendering the two at a standstill.

However, Natal wasn't out of tricks yet, as she extended her tongue out, still holding onto the sword, which was now pointed at Cal.

Cal's tail sneaked underneath and hoped to pull at Natal's leg to lose her balance. Somehow, however, Natal noticed that, and quickly sent her tongue right down to curl up Cal 's tail. Once more, the two were in a stalemate.

"...well, we certainly won't go anywhere with this," Cal remarked in a chuckle.

"…true enough." Natal chuckled as well.

Cal actually thought of something though. Raising one of his hand-like feet, he reached over and tickled one of Natal's legs. "Coochie-coochie coo," he chuckled.

Surprised by this tactic, Natal couldn't help but start giggling, as she glanced at Cal . "Cheap-shot." she managed to say in between giggles.

With Natal occupied, Cal managed to yank away from Natal, and that was when he sheathed both his katanas. "I say we take a break," he said, sitting on the tree branch he jumped to.

"…yeah." Natal nodded in agreement, withdrawing her own swords and leaping up on the branch Cal was sitting on, sitting next to him.

Cal decided to start up conversation. "How long have we been here now? A week, maybe?" he asked.

"Hmm…" Counting on her fingers, Natal eventually nodded. "Yeah; more or less a week." she said.

Cal let out a bit of a tired breath. "I didn't think I'm come to so much craziness when we all came here," he said.

"Things really have picked up, though…" Natal hummed, before giggling. "Plus, I don't think the others seem to mind spending time here."

"Especially Wiper," Cal could almost laugh. He didn't even think that he'd get interested in a girl; he always thought that Wiper was more like Shadow. Someone who just didn't get into things like that.

Natal nodded, as she looked towards the horizon with a small smile. "…this place has certainly proved to be interesting." she hummed.

"...I just hope things don't get dangerous," Cal said, growing serious. "I'd hate to see any tragedy happen to anyone here..."

"…yeah… me, too…" Natal sighed, closing her eyes.

Instead of letting his mind sink into a solemn depression of all the bad things that could happen here, he tried to look on the bright side. "...well, that's what we're here for anyway," he murmured. "To make sure nothing gets out of hand."

"…yeah." Natal nodded, smiling a bit. "We'll make sure to keep things in order."

Cal looked at the wilderness all around him. To be honest, he didn't really know what else to carry conversation with. "...sure is nice today."

"Yeah; it's really peaceful." Natal nodded, before she opened her eyes, glancing around her as well.

"...hm." Cal closed his own eyes, feeling the soft breeze that gathered up some of the leaves on the ground, and listening to the various sounds of nature. He laid back a little more relaxed-like.

"...wh-whoa-AHHH!" He leaned back so far that he lost balance on the tree branch he sat on, and plopped his way down each tree branch until landing on the ground in some bushes. Seeing that, Natal let out a small sigh, before she quickly made her way down to those bushes, trying to pull Cal out.

"Here… are you alright?" she inquired.

"Yeah," Cal muttered. "...for whatever reason, I still have my clumsy moments."

"…I suppose it happens." Natal shrugged, before smiling. "Don't sweat over it, though. Honestly, it's kind of cute when you have one of those moments."

Cal blushed, but he tried to look irritated. "Me? Cute?"

"Yep." Natal giggled with a nod. "What, you don't like being cute?"

"...well..." Cal didn't have an answer for that. He only blushed a little more.

Natal only giggled at seeing that. "At least I like it when you're cute." she hummed.

Cal sort of smiled. "...well, I guess I kinda like it when you're a tease."

"Me? A tease?" Natal giggled, pretending to be clueless. "Since when?"

Cal put a finger to her nose. "Since you decided to kiss me that night at the Clubhouse."

Giggling, Natal pressed her own finger against Cal 's nose. "Admit it; you liked it."

"Okay, maybe I did like it. Had to admit it caught me by surprise at first, though," Cal took her and held her.

Smiling, Natal placed a hand on Cal 's cheek. "Yes, you did seem flustered… that looked cute as well," she giggled.

Cal smiled back at her. Then he planted a kiss on her. Wrapping her other arm around Cal, Natal kissed him back. Cal started getting lost in kissing her, holding her closer. Natal did the same; holding onto him tighter whilst kissing him. He peered around the corners of his eyes to see if there was anyone walking by. Since the coast was clear, Cal gently took Natal and laid her down on the ground, within the hiding of the bushes.

* * *

"Are you still numb, Ruki?" Charmy asked, still leisurely sitting at that bench that he had been sitting at for hours now.

"Nnh…" Ruki grunted, as she tried getting to her feet, whilst looking at Wiper, who kept himself in a fighting stance. "…it's starting to wear off." she murmured.

"I certainly hope so," Charmy said. "Wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you."

Giving him a nod, Ruki quickly rushed right at Wiper, snapping her pincers at the cobra. However, he was agile enough to avoid the blows, making sure not to let them get close to him. As Ruki kept up her relentless assault, Wiper still didn't strike back; simply waiting for an opportunity.

Charmy sat there watching them.

Just when Ruki raised her pincers in an attempt to slam them down on Wiper, he suddenly thrust his hand forward, striking her left shoulder. As it fell limp, Ruki leaped away from Wiper. "…tsch…"

"…striking your opponent's pressure points is an ideal way of finishing a fight." Wiper hummed, as he looked at his hands for a small while. "And that, along with my other ability, has kept you from hitting me."

"…hrm…" Humming, Ruki seemed to get an idea. "…gotcha!" Before Wiper would know it, Ruki suddenly sent her tail's stinger flying right at Wiper's leg, striking it before he could move away. Gritting his teeth, he looked at Ruki. "…like it? My stinger's filled with a paralyzing toxin… much like what you've got in your teeth. It'll take a while for it to recover." she chuckled.

"Interesting twist," Charmy murmured under his breath.

Gritting his teeth, Wiper tried getting on his feet, but to no avail; the paralyzed leg prevented him from moving.

"Alright; here I come!" Ruki called, before she ran right at Wiper, snapping her pincers at him. Surprisingly, Wiper actually kept them from reaching him, even though he was confined to one spot.

Charmy watched on.

It came to a point where Wiper held both of Ruki's pincers at a halt again, keeping the two from moving. All of a sudden, however, Ruki attempted to jab her stinger into Wiper's body, to paralyze him further.

With no other option, Wiper did the most sensible thing he could think of; raising his leg to take the stinger, saving him from being skewered. Without fail, Wiper suddenly jabbed his right hand into Ruki's chest, rendering both of them simply standing there for a while, locked in place.

Charmy whistled a little, apparently not very concerned about the suspense of this battle; yet he still watched.

After a while of silence, the two fighters collapsed on the ground, both of them taking a few breaths.

"…I call for a break…" Ruki uttered.

"…I could use a break, yes…" Wiper murmured.

Charmy just chuckled, getting up from the bench and approaching the two. "Well, you two have been battling for almost the entire day." He was amazed that they didn't stop sooner.

In fact, once glance out at the horizon, and he saw that the sun was getting closer to the sea. "I bet the others will be heading back, now."

"…perhaps…" Wiper hummed, as he closed his eyes.

"…this has been one hell of a workout, though…" Ruki murmured. "…I feel much stronger, already!"

"Sure that you're not experiencing a placebo effect?" Wiper chuckled.

"Eh; it could be the adrenaline…" Ruki chuckled as well.

"…well now," Charmy mused. Off in the distance, two bodies trudged their way tiredly across the road toward them.

Rudy and Newt had all kinds of bruises and scrapes on them, but that didn't wipe off their grins off their faces when they made it to the three. "Today was awesome!" Rudy laughed, throwing his arms up enthusiastically.

"Rudy really knows how to throw a punch, y'know!" Newt laughed, patting Rudy's back.

"…nice to know that you two had fun, today." Wiper chuckled, as he eventually sat up, looking at the two.

"Wow, you guys look pooped," Rudy said.

"And you two don't?" Ruki quipped, as she sat up as well, before glancing behind her. As she did that, she noticed someone. "…hey, look who's coming!"

As it turned out, she was talking about Natal and Cal, both of them seeming less exhausted than the other two groups, but they still seemed content. "…you guys are done, now?" Natal hummed.

"Yeah, pretty much," Rudy said, scratching an itch he had underneath his sweatshirt. "It doesn't look like you guys did much to each other."

"You have to keep in mind that we're ninja like that," Cal said with a finger to his head, like it was supposed to be a no-brainer.

"Right…" Wiper hummed, as he folded his arms. "…well, it seems that we only have one group remaining."

"Yeah; Boomer and Sonia." Newt nodded, scratching the back of his head. "…but what's takin' 'em so long?"

"I don't know, but I hope they'd hurry!" Rudy said.

It was almost if that cursed time to go slower, and drag out. The group sat around and waited until sundown.

That was when Cal spotted some figures coming toward them. He recognized one of them. "Hey, there there's Sonia," he said with a point.

Rudy squinted to try and get a better view. "…but…who's that with her?"

"…dunno…" Newt hummed. "…a new friend of hers?"

"But why wouldn't she come back with Boomer?" Natal inquired.

"…hmm…" In silence, Wiper tried making out who it was that was coming with Sonia.

"…guys…" Cal's eyes went wide. "…I think that_ is_ Boomer."

When they were close enough, everyone could see the green duck was not so tomboyish now, that was for sure. Since her overalls were drenched with mud, she had changed clothes, and Sonia had decided to pick out the clothes for her.

She had black boots, a black plaid miniskirt with a chain hanging on it, and a black belly top with netting around her neck and arms; appearing to be quite a gothic style. It was quite a transformation from what she usually wore, and obviously Boomer didn't look to happy about it. Seeing Boomer dressed like that, Newt instantly turned red, merely able to gawk at her. The particular style that appealed to him, as well as the fact that Boomer looked like a girl now, stunned him.

"…well… that's unusual." Wiper commented.

"So, what do you all think?" Sonia laughed, placing a hand on Boomer's shoulder. "I think it kinda suits her!"

Boomer just grumbled.

Rudy laughed at her. "Wow, she's boiling like an egg! I don't think she likes that all that much!" Of course he had to be the loud mouth in his opinion.

"Shut it, or I'll pound your face in, Rudy," Boomer growled.

Cal didn't exactly know what to say. He didn't want to say anything that would offend her, but it was just so…weird, seeing her dressed up like this.

Rudy hopped all around Boomer to get a look at her, when he stopped. "…hey, when did YOU get a tattoo?" he asked in astonishment. On Boomer's lower back, there was a tattoo of a black, wicked-looking butterfly.

"She has a tattoo?" Natal hummed, tilting her head.

"Ooh, let me see!" Ruki called, as she followed Rudy to see this tattoo. "…man, that looks sweet! Where'd you get it?"

"…you seem to learn something new, everyday…" Wiper hummed, as he shot a glance at Newt, who tried (and failed) to hide the fact that he was redder than a tomato.

"…really? Are you guys serious?" Boomer said. "I got this tattoo last year!"

Cal was surprised. "What?"

"Well, you guys just…never saw it, I guess," Boomer assumed.

"…well, you didn't tell us about it, either." Wiper hummed.

Blinking, Natal glanced towards Newt as well. _…did he know about it…? _she pondered.

She thought Newt told them, and just before she opened her beak, she shut it again. The situation was already embarrassing enough for them, and Boomer didn't need to make it worse by talking before thinking. "...I thought you guys knew," she muttered.

"No, we didn't have a clue about it!" Rudy remarked, hopping right around back in front of her. Then he noticed Newt. "What's wrong with him?"

Rudy saying that drew Boomer's glance at Newt, and seeing the look on his face made her blush in embarrassment.

Seeing the two, Sonia hummed, as she folded her arms.

"…um…" Newt began, rubbing the back of his head. "…you… look great, Boomer."

"...uh...thanks," Boomer replied, shuffling her feet bashfully.

Looking from Boomer to Newt, Wiper kept a neutral look on his face, before letting out a small sigh. "…well, shall we call it a day?"

"Yeah, I'm starting to get hungry," Rudy said, quickly hopping away.

"Hold up, Rudy!" Cal hollered, following him.

Sighing, Natal gave the group a nod. "Let's go." she said, before following the two.

"He's a lively one, huh?" Sonia chuckled, as she and Wiper began following them as well.

"You can say that again." Wiper nodded.

"Better not get left behind you two," Charmy chuckled, turned and walking after the rest, leaving Boomer and Newt standing there. Realizing that they were on their own, Newt scratched the back of his neck, glancing towards Boomer bashfully.

Boomer was more comfortable that everyone left, but she was still a little shy toward Newt. "...well..."

"…um…" Newt hummed, managing a small smile. "…you…"

"...yeah?" Boomer wanted to know if Newt was going to say anything.

"…well… I know I already said this, but…" Newt began. "…you look great, Boomer."

Boomer smiled, blushing again. "...thanks."

"…no problem, y'know." Newt replied, as he walked up to Boomer, unable to take his eyes off her. Boomer was still when he came up to her, and looked at him, still shyly smiling. Once he stopped by her, Newt simply looked down at her with a smile of his own.

Boomer dreaded the idea of wearing this outfit in front of her comrades, and may even get after Sonia about it later, but now, she didn't think it was so bad. She certainly liked the way Newt was smiling at her. "...we...uh, should we catch up with them?" Boomer muttered.

"…um…" Newt hummed, as he scratched the back of his head. "…well… maybe… what do you think, Boomer?"

"...well..." Boomer smiled a little more. "...I know that we don't have to follow them if we don't want to."

"…yeah… that's right…" Newt nodded, smiling a bit more as well. "…so, where do we go?"

"I guess somewhere where we could spend some time..." Boomer murmured. "...you know, alone."

"…yeah… that works." Newt nodded.

Boomer took Newt's hand, and smiled at him again. "...shall we?"

"…yeah." Newt nodded, smiling down at Boomer. "Let's go."

Boomer and Newt started walking away in a different direction than where the others had gone, and Charmy hesitated to watch them go with a smile of his own. He was still proud of the funny tricks he did to them all those years ago that probably got them together like that. Chuckling under his breath, he returned to following the others.

* * *

_**Day Two**_

_**

* * *

**_

As the morning sun crept up across the horizon, Wiper rose from his bed, glancing out the window. _…what time is it…?_ he thought, rubbing his eyes. As far as he could recall, he had waited up far too long for Boomer and Newt to come to the pub, so he assumed that they had gone someplace else for the night. _As long as they're ready for training…_

There came a knocking on Wiper's bedroom door.

Blinking, Wiper glanced towards the door. "…who is it?" he called.

The door opened. "Rise and shine, sleepy head!" Rudy laughed. "Ani would've come to wake you up, but she went to go play with Striker and the others!"

"…just like yesterday, huh…" Wiper murmured, stretching out as he got out of bed. "…any sign of Boomer and Newt?" he asked, glancing at the kangaroo.

Rudy tapped his lip. "Not yet...no one really knows where they went off last night either," he said.

"…as long as they get back, it's none of our business." Wiper shrugged, as he began walking towards the door, rubbing his eyes.

"Anyway, let's go meet up with Ruki at the spot we were at yesterday!" Rudy said, hopping down the hall. "Who knows? Maybe Boomer and Newt are waiting for us there, too!"

"Sure." Wiper nodded, as he began following Rudy.

"Good morning Wiper," Cal joined them in the hallway shortly, walking with them. "I see Rudy woke you up this morning."

"So he did." Wiper nodded.

"I do wonder what games Ani and the boys are playing, though." At that point, Natal joined the gang in the hall as well, walking alongside them.

"Aw man, I bet they're having lots of fun," Rudy moaned. "After all, they got Joy with them too."

"I'm surprised that Jill is letting her spend so much time with them," Cal murmured.

"Well, she's being looked after by them, at least." Natal shrugged.

"Hm." Wiper nodded.

"C'mon, let's hurry!" Rudy urged.

Hours later, after picking up Charmy, the lot of them headed off toward the place that Ruki and Wiper were primarily at yesterday for their battle. Of course, Ruki was waiting there and all ready for today's activities. While Boomer and Newt weren't already there, they conveniently saw them coming from another direction, meeting up with them.

"There you guys are!" Rudy said, hopping after them. He saw that Boomer was still in the same outfit from last night, likely because she hadn't had the chance to get back to Sonia's and grab her usual clothes; speaking of, Sonia wasn't here.

"…well, we're missing one member of our training group, it seems." Natal hummed, as she watched the two newcomers walk towards them.

Glancing towards Boomer and Newt, Wiper hissed, before he looked around him. _…strange… I'd have expected her to be up by now…_ he thought.

"Maaaan, why is it that there's someone always missing, and making us wait?" whined Rudy, getting a hit upside his head in reply. "OW!"

"Just be quiet and calm down, Rudy," Boomer growled, not really wanting to listen to him make noise this morning.

"Well, I suppose we'll just have to wait…" Newt murmured, folding his arms.

"Not exactly."

Hearing that voice, Wiper glanced behind him, to see Sonia walking towards them, though someone was accompanying her; a warthog wearing feudal armor.

"…Krieg?" Ruki uttered upon seeing him.

"Wow...he's big!" Rudy threw his hands up in the air dramatically.

"...he's also blind," Cal murmured under his own breath in observation.

"Hiya." Sonia called, waving at the group. "Sorry that I took so long; I bumped into Krieg, here, and he decided to tag along when he heard that Ruki was training with us."

"I'd like to try out for the tournament as well; I rarely get time to practice, these days." Krieg said with a nod to the group, before turning his head towards Ruki.

"…that's nice…" Ruki noted, as she folded her arms. "…though this makes nine people. What do we do, now?"

"…we could split up into groups of three." Wiper suggested, glancing around him.

Rudy was certainly psyched about that. Then his hand shot up. "I call the blind guy!"

"Now, now, we have to do this fairly," Charmy chuckled, pulling out the hat from his vest again. "We'll randomly pick teams out."

"Awww..." Rudy's hand fell in disdain.

With a nod, the others waited for their names to be picked by whoever would draw them.

"Wiper," Charmy said, offering the hat to him. "You pick two names...both of them will be your opponent."

Nodding, Wiper took two names from the hat, before looking at them. "…Sonia and Rudy." he hummed.

"Well, looks like we're cruising together on this one." Sonia chuckled, as she glanced at Rudy. "That's alright with you, right, Rudy?"

"Yeah, I guess," Rudy said with a casual shrug.

"I'll just quickly pull Wiper's name out to save confusion..." Charmy said, fishing through the hat. Once he picked out Wiper's name, he shook it up again. "Ruki, you go ahead and draw now."

"Alright…" Nodding, Ruki reached into the hat (albeit with some difficulty, given her pincer hands), before she pulled out two slips of paper. "…Newt and Boomer."

"Okay; we're grouped together, then!" Newt said with a nod.

"That means we'll all have to fight each other though," Boomer pointed out.

"And that just leaves me, Natal, and...Krieg, was it?" Cal inquired of the warthog.

"…that is correct." Krieg nodded.

"Well, we shouldn't waste more time; let's start training." Natal shot in, as she folded her arms, looking at the three groups.

"C'mon! Let's get to the forest this time!" Rudy exclaimed, grabbing Sonia's and Wiper's arms and hurrying down the road with them in tow.

"Whoa! Someone's eager!" Sonia laughed, letting Rudy pull her and Wiper after him.

"So, where do we go to train?" Ruki hummed, as she looked at Boomer and Newt.

"Let's see if the Battle Arena's empty," Boomer suggested.

"Right; let's move!" Newt nodded, as he, Ruki and Boomer headed off.

"…I suppose we could stay here." Krieg hummed, turning his head towards Cal.

"Yeah, I don't have any problem with that," Cal replied, pretty sure that Natal would agree to the same.

Charmy found his bench and sat down on it. "As usual, I'll just stay here and watch," he said. "Do feel free to begin at any time."

"Very well." Krieg nodded, as he took a few steps back, nodding to Cal and Natal. "Ready when you are."

Glancing from Krieg to Cal, Natal nodded, before she drew one of her swords. _…he's blind… but he carries his own sword around…_ she thought, looking at the warthog. _…this could be interesting._

Cal drew out his own katana's, warily looking at Krieg. He knew that the warthog wasn't going to make the first attack, and he also figured it wasn't going to be as easy as it would look.

Krieg silently drew out the sword he kept on his back, waiting for either Natal or Cal to make their move.

…_he's patient… _Natal thought, as she slowly began circling around the warthog. _…I need to be cautious with him…_

Cal figured he aught to make the first move, and he tip-toed forward at first, then he leaped into the air with a diving swipe at Krieg. With surprising agility, however, Krieg suddenly parried Cal's attempted slash, remaining completely stationary.

Natal blinked. _…impressive…_ Quickly latching her tongue around the hilt of her sword, she shot it forward, intending to catch Krieg by surprise.

However, the warthog seemed to hear it coming, stepping to the side to let the tongue sail past him, before he grabbed it, yanking Natal towards him.

Cal ran and aimed to kick the arm that had a hold of Natal's tongue. (In reality, possessing hand-like feet would make it a punch). Before the kick could connect, however, Krieg pulled on the tongue to the point that Natal got in the way of the kick, resulting in her taking the blow and collapsing to the ground.

"Ungh…" Once Krieg let go of her tongue, she retracted it, holding her head and shaking it. …he's skilled… is he even blind? she thought, quickly getting to her feet, looking at Krieg.

"...yeah, I'm sure he's blind," Cal said, baring his katanas up.

"All the more reason that he's proficient," Charmy chuckled, still casually watching them.

Cracking her neck, Natal drew her other swords as well.

"…go." Krieg uttered, before he suddenly rushed right at Cal, aiming to slash him with his own sword.

Cal leaped out of the way in a panic. _Geez, he's like a tank!_ He thought.

Quickly, Natal rushed right at Krieg as well, but when she attempted an overhead swing at him, he raised his other hand and blocked the strike with his gauntlet, without even bothering to turn back to face Natal. Quickly pushing her away, Krieg attempted another charge at Cal. This time, Cal leaped high enough to jump right off Krieg's head, landing on the other side. Afterward, he spun around and charged right back at Krieg from behind. In the nick of time, Krieg spun around as well, parrying the blow with his own sword, before rushing at Cal for another strike.

However, before it could connect, Cal was suddenly snatched away by Natal, who had used her tongue as a lasso to reel Cal away from the blow. Before Krieg could figure out where Cal had been pulled to, Natal let go of the monkey, before motioning for him to try an attack on Krieg right away.

Cal took quick, silent steps on the tips of the fingers on his feet and jumped into the air, aiming a slash at Krieg's back. However, even with the element of surprise, Cal's sword didn't even scratch Krieg's armor, though it gave Krieg the incentive to leap forward, before turning to face Cal.

"…unreal…" Natal uttered. "…where do you get that kind of skill from?"

"…years and years of training." Krieg responded, gripping his sword. "Though, at the moment, I only possess one tenth of my true potential."

"...well, this is going to be challenging," Cal muttered in slight disdain, gripping his katanas firmly.

"...guess we've got to give it our best shot." Natal sighed, gripping her own swords as well.

* * *

"Alright, Rudy, you're sure you're ready?" Now in the woods, Wiper and Sonia had finished stretching out for the sparring session, though Sonia still wondered if Rudy would be able to keep up with both of them.

"Sure, I'm sure!" Rudy said, hopping up and down impatiently.

"Just be assured; we're not holding back." Wiper nodded, as he cracked his neck. "So we're expecting you to follow our example."

"Alright, everyone's ready!" Sonia called, clapping her hands together. "Let's get started!"

"Bouncy, bouncy, BOUNCY!" Rudy laughed, hopping up higher and higher and higher to rocket right down at Wiper and Sonia with his kangaroo feet. The two of them quickly leapt out of the way of this attack, and when Rudy landed, Sonia quickly rushed at him with a kick. Rudy leaned back on his tail, and once the punch flew over him, he sprung with his own kick at Sonia.

"OOF!" Sonia coughed once she was kicked, holding her stomach and stumbling back. "…that got some power…"

"…behind you." Just then, Wiper, who had gotten behind Rudy, began rapidly thrusting his hands at Rudy's back, to strike his pressure points and paralyze him.

"AGH!" Rudy fell onto the ground, motionless; except for a few twitches here and there. "...that's not fair!" He protested.

"Well, I did say that we wouldn't hold back." Wiper noted, rubbing his hands. "There's going to be people with even less fair moves at the tournament, you know."

Rudy winced as he twitched.

...somehow, he started to feel his legs, and then his arms quickly, and slowly started getting back up.

Wiper raised an eyebrow at that. "…strange… it usually takes longer for someone to recover from the paralysis." he commented.

Finally Rudy was on his feet and hopping happily again. "Woo! Hey Wiper, THINK FAST!" And with another spring of his tail, he lauched at Wiper with both fists.

Quickly, Wiper rolled away from the incoming punch, glancing at Rudy. "…that was quick… how did he-" All of a sudden, he found himself caught in a headlock, and the same went for Rudy.

"Don't tell me that you boys forgot about me?" Sonia laughed, as she was holding both Wiper and Rudy in her arms, keeping them from moving about.

Rudy struggled. "Admittedly, I did!" but he couldn't break free.

"I was… caught up in the moment, I suppose." Wiper admitted, struggling a bit as well.

"Now, I got both of you under control…" Sonia hummed, glancing from Rudy to Wiper. "…man, I still got it!" she laughed.

Rudy lifted a leg. "Hm...wonder what happens when I do THIS?" He slammed the foot to the ground and the bounce was so strong that he actually knocked Sonia and Wiper over, breaking free of their grasp. Once they landed, both of the snakes quickly recovered, getting to their feet.

"…you know, he could come a long way in the tournament!" Sonia commented.

"I suppose…" Wiper nodded, cracking his neck. "…this could get tricky."

"Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy!" Rudy was preoccupied bouncing around the place, growing more and more hyper in the moment.

"…this could get _really_ tricky." Wiper murmured.

"…I got an idea!" Sonia called, snapping her fingers. "I'll keep him busy!" she said, before running towards him.

Rudy kept hopping around madly, not even noticing Sonia. "Tsch…" Watching Rudy bounce about, Sonia waited to see if he would try and ram into her; in which case, she'd be ready to grab him.

"Okay, here I come!" Rudy finally said, leaping at Sonia with a kick. The moment Rudy attempted to kick her, Sonia had the insight to grab his leg, causing both of them to skid along the ground, whilst the rattlesnake kept a firm grip on him.

"Hey!" Rudy tried to pull and pry from Sonia but she held him so.

"Sorry, but you're not going anywhere." Sonia chuckled, glancing behind the kangaroo. "You need to slow down a bit."

"This might hurt a little, so I apologize in advance." All of a sudden, Wiper managed to get behind Rudy, grabbing hold of his tail, before biting it.

"YOW!" Rudy leaped up in the air, somehow breaking from Sonia's grip while he clutched to his tail in pain. Upon landing, Rudy found immediately that he couldn't budge.

"Even with your excessive amount of energy…" Wiper hummed, as he glanced at Rudy. "…the neurotoxin from my teeth should keep you immobilized for a while longer."

"…right…" Sonia uttered, wiping her brow, before looking at Rudy. "…maybe now would be a good time for a break?"

"Aw, but I don't wanna take a break!" But Rudy really had no choice, because he wasn't going to be able to move anytime soon.

"Really, you should learn to stay still for a bit." Sonia chuckled, lying down on the ground. "With how energetic you are, I'm afraid that you could cause the entire arena to collapse when the tournament rolls along."

"...killjoy," Rudy muttered in defeat.

* * *

"Well, looks like the arena was empty after all," and good thing too. Boomer had a thing about training in front of other people. Call her picky, but with the outfit she was wearing, she didn't want those horrible perverts making comments on her while she fought. She REALLY needed to get her overalls from Sonia's place.

"…you know, it's weird." Ruki commented, glancing around her. "I'd have figured that a lot more people would be using the arena to train."

"Maybe everyone thought that only the strongest were training here, and wanted to steer clear?" Newt suggested with a mild shrug.

"Well, all that matters is that this place is empty and perfect to use," Boomer said.

"Right." Ruki nodded, snapping her pincers a few times. "So, shall we begin?"

"I'm ready, y'know!" Newt nodded, cracking his knuckles.

"So am I!" Boomer paced back and forth, and then shot a fist at Ruki immediately.

"Hm!" Quickly, Ruki caught the fist with her pincer, making sure not to grip too hard down on it, lest she rip it right off Boomer's arm.

"Huah!" At that point, Newt ran to throw a punch at Ruki as well, but the scorpion quickly grabbed his fist with her other pincer, keeping the two at bay.

Being held at bay like that, Boomer brought up her foot to kick Ruki in the face. Even as the foot slammed into her, Ruki's grip on the two didn't cease.

"…let go!" Newt grunted, aiming a punch at Ruki with his other hand.

Just like the kick, it hit Ruki, but she didn't let go of the two. Boomer even tried stomping down on Ruki's toe. Still, she didn't let go of the two.

"Damn, you sure have a firm grip!" Boomer grunted.

"It could be firmer, but…" Ruki shrugged. "…I'd rather not risk hurting you two."

Boomer, this time, raised her foot and aimed a kick right at the joint between her wrist and her pincer. Still, the kick didn't do anything to make Ruki let go, though with her wincing, one could see that it hurt her.

_...damn...how do we make her let go? _Boomer thought.

"…hrm…" In desperation, Newt did the only thing that really came to mind, as he suddenly reached his free hand over, and began tickling Ruki's side.

"Pfftt…" Ruki uttered, trying as best she could not to burst out laughing, though one could see that her grip was wavering.

_...not a bad idea, Newt,_ Boomer thought with a smirk, using her free hand to aid in the tickling.

"Pffff- no, s-stop it!" Ruki laughed, struggling to keep her grip straight. "I-I'm really ticklish! Plea-haha-se stop!"

"Keep at it, Boomer!" Newt said, ignoring Ruki's pleas. "We've got 'er now, y'know!"

Boomer chuckled to herself, while she kept on tickling.

"C'mon, this isn't fair!" Ruki laughed, before eventually, she was forced to let go of the two, before she held her stomach in laughing throes. "I can't stand the tickling! Knock it off, will ya?"

"Keep at it, Boomer; we've got her!" Newt laughed, as he still kept on tickling the scorpion, who just couldn't stop laughing.

"This is fun," Boomer admitted with glee, continuing.

"Not fair!" Ruki laughed, unable to get the two to stop tickling her. "If I had fingers, I'd have tickled you guys as well!"

"But you don't, so too bad," Boomer retorted.

"Oh, I'll get you back!" Ruki laughed. "…wait… I _can_ tickle you!"

Just then, Boomer felt something that was starting to tickle her as well, and when she noticed it, she saw that it was Ruki's tail.

"AHAHAH!" Boomer yelped out, and jumped away from Ruki to get away from the tail.

"Eh?" Blinking, Newt glanced back at Boomer, stopping his tickling session. "Boomer, wha-AHAHAHAHAH-"

At this point, Ruki had taken advantage of Newt's moment of weakness, using her tail to tickle the salamander. "Revenge!" she laughed, an mischievous smirk on her lips.

"Guess we aren't taking this as seriously as I thought we would," Boomer chuckled. Then she ran at Ruki. "Okay, let's get back to business!" Since Ruki was busy tickling Newt, she had an opportunity to punch Ruki. The punch knocked her off balance, which made her stop tickling the salamander.

"Ow… cheap shot!" she groaned, shooting a glare at Boomer.

"Well, that's what happens, y'know." Newt shrugged, before he turned to face Ruki again.

"Hoo… well, we got a nice workout from that." Ruki noted, cracking her neck a bit. "Alright… here I come!" Quickly, Ruki ran at the two, aiming to swing one of her pincers at Boomer like a mace, whilst using her tail as a whip against Newt. Boomer ducked to the side, running up to the scorpion and kicking her again. Strangely, she felt like she could move around a lot easier with the skirt than the lag of the jean bottoms of her overalls.

As she had just finished whipping away Newt, Ruki used her tail to block the kick before it could reach her, though that left her open for a punch to the face from the salamander, sending her skidding away.

"Phew…" Newt hummed, wiping his brow. "…we're gettin' a lot of practice out of this, y'know!"

"Sure feels like it," Boomer agreed. She wasn't going to rest, so she ran at Ruki again.

This time, however, Ruki had more time to lunge right at Boomer, grabbing her arms and pinning her to the ground. "I'm gonna need a countdown; three strikes, and you're out." she said with a smirk.

"Hey!" Quickly, Newt ran right at Ruki to try and get her off Boomer, but the scorpion thought ahead, using her tail to bind the incoming salamander in place. "Tsch… you know your tricks." he scoffed, trying to break free.

"I know." Ruki shrugged, before glancing at Boomer. "So… what do you say that we take a break? I need a breather."

"...I guess I have no choice..." Boomer muttered.

"Alright!" With a nod, Ruki let go of both Boomer and Newt, before she wiped her brow. "Man… training like this is something else, isn't it?" she hummed, before she sat down, letting out a small sigh.

"It certainly wasn't like the training at GUN." Not that Boomer had to undergo that training, really, but she's watched it once or twice. That, and Newt told her a few things about it.

"…still, going through this is definitely gonna be worth it." Ruki nodded, looking up at the sky. "I don't care if I win the tournament or not… as long as I can grow stronger, then I'm fine doing whatever it takes."

"...you wanna grow stronger?" Newt hummed.

"Yup." Ruki nodded.

"Do you have any specific reasons why?" Boomer asked curiously.

"Well…" Ruki hummed, rubbing her chin in thought. "…I wanna help others who need it. And I figured a year or two over at Safe Haven could help me with that." she eventually replied.

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Boomer responded.

"I know, right?" Ruki chuckled. "So I'm gonna give it my best shot, and get stronger as fast as I can!"

* * *

"This...isn't good." Cal and Natal jumped away from Krieg again, catching their breath. "To be honest, I'm getting worn out, Natal," Cal whispered. "He's tough."

"And he doesn't even seem to be breaking a sweat…" Natal whispered back. "…just where did he get this kind of experience?"

With a mild hum, Krieg turned towards where he assumed Cal and Natal were, simply waiting for them to make their move.

Charmy sat patiently waiting for them, just enjoying the sunshine; which he noticed probably wouldn't last very long, since he could see it drifting toward the horizon again. Cal also saw this, and finally, he just dropped his katanas to the ground. "I'm done," he said in tired defeat.

"…yeah, I'm done, too." Natal sighed, as she sat down, rubbing her temples. "You're tough, Krieg."

"…you two are skilled, as well." Krieg hummed, as he sheathed his sword, before he approached both Cal and Natal . "Quite commendable."

"...coming from you, that's quite the compliment," Cal remarked.

"Indeed," Charmy got up from the bench and walked to them. "You three did as well as Ruki and Wiper did yesterday."

"Is that so?" Krieg hummed.

"I guess; according to Wiper, he and Ruki never once took a break during their fight yesterday." Natal nodded.

"…I see." Krieg mused. "Most interesting…" he added, before he sat down.

"It looks like another day is coming to a close," Charmy said.

"WOOOOHOOOOOOO!" Everyone's ears captured quite the obnoxious outcry, and the bushes split apart for a brown blur to sweep right past them...and return with a screeching halt.

"Hi guys!" It was Rudy.

"…hello, Rudy." Natal said with a small smile. "Where's Wiper and Sonia?"

"Right behind him." they heard Wiper call, as soon, he and Sonia emerged from where Rudy had burst through, Sonia looking especially exhausted. "How was training for you guys?" the cobra hummed, as he folded his arms.

"...it was," Cal tried to find the word for it. "...effective."

"So was ours!" Rudy exclaimed, hopping circles around everyone. "Man, I didn't think I could actually sit still for so long, but it was HORRIBLE! I don't think I could stand being paralyzed again!"

Charmy looked from Rudy to the tired Sonia, and chuckled. He knew Rudy was a handful.

"…that only leaves Ruki's group." Krieg hummed, as he folded his arms.

"Wonder where they are, right now…" Sonia hummed, scratching her head.

"We're over here, y'know!" they heard Newt call, as the group could see Boomer, Newt and Ruki approach them, all of them looking exhausted as well.

"Hiya Boomer! Hi Newt! Hi Ruki!" Rudy waved his arms around excitedly while he kept hopping around.

Boomer watched him with annoyance. "...I thought training would calm him down," he grumbled.

"You know Rudy, Boomer," Charmy chuckled.

"In any case," Wiper hummed, folding his arms, "that's two days done."

"Right; we should think of getting' some shuteye." Ruki said, letting out a small yawn.

"Indeed; we won't get much training if we're drowsy." Krieg chimed in.

"…oh, yeah, Ruki; where do you sleep at?" Sonia inquired. "Unless you're still over at the newcomer barracks, you could stay over at my place."

"That won't be necessary." Krieg hummed. "She lives in the same quarters as I do."

"…oh…" Sonia hummed, before grinning. "So you two are bedmates, then?"

If Ruki could turn a redder shade than she naturally was, she would've done so instantly upon hearing that comment. "Wha- what kinda inquiry is that?" she snapped, causing the others to start laughing, with the exception of Krieg. "Hey, it isn't funny! Cut it out!"

* * *

_**Day Three**_

_**

* * *

**_

"…another day…" Yawning, Wiper glanced out towards the window, seeing that sunlight was shining through the window of his bedroom. _…wonder if anything unusual will happen…_

"_**RUUUUUUUUDY!"**_ whether or not Wiper would really call it unusual, a loud roar filled the building.

The yell presumably belonged to Boomer, so maybe it wouldn't be so unusual since she was the one most likely to yell at the kangaroo for something.

Wiper glanced towards the door. _…that's one way to get people to wake up. _he thought, as he rubbed his eyes drowsily.

Wiper's door suddenly swung open, and a panicked Rudy slammed it back shut, locking it. Then he pressed his back to the door when pounding hit the door. "RUDY! GET OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW!" screamed Boomer.

"Wiper, you gotta hide me!" Rudy whimpered.

Wiper blinked, as he could only look at Rudy with a puzzled look. "…what did you do, now?" he yawned.

"I...uh..." Rudy just snickered. "...I poured cold water on her to wake her up!" Another pounding on the door made him jump with fear with a yelp, and scurry right underneath Wiper's bed.

With a slight groan, Wiper rubbed his temples. _Cal, Newt, someone… do try and calm her down… _he thought.

Almost as if answering his request, the pounding stopped. "C'mon Boomer, you know how Rudy is," Cal's voice was speaking outside of Wiper's door. "It was just a harmless joke."

"Yeah, a joke in bad taste!" Boomer bellowed right back.

"Now Boomer, just because you're in a fowl mood, doesn't give you the excuse to talk to your comrades like that." Charmy had cut in, and his voice was what really brought the calm silence.

There was a sigh, "...yes Captain," Boomer responded.

Hearing the silence, Wiper let out a small sigh of relief. "…seems like the situation's defused itself…" he murmured.

Rudy poked his head out from beneath the bed. "Is it safe?" he uttered.

"…so it seems." Wiper hummed. "Charmy calmed her down… but I do suppose we can all learn a thing from this." Then, he glanced down at the kangaroo. "Namely, don't wake Boomer up by pouring water on her."

"...right," Rudy crawled out from under the bed, rubbing his chin. "Next time, I'll use a firecracker to wake her up."

"…or maybe you won't…" Wiper muttered, letting out another yawn as he got out of bed.

"...oh..." Rudy finally got what Wiper meant. "...yeah, okay." So he unlocked the door for him and Wiper to enter into the hall.

Scratching the back of his neck, Wiper headed out, as he let out another yawn. _The last day of training…_ he thought. …wonder if it'll be different from the other training days…

Once they all got some breakfast, Ani took off again with Striker and the others to get Joy, leaving Teams Alpha and Chaotix to exit the pub and head toward the usual spot, assuming that Ruki and Sonia would be there too; perhaps Krieg if he was still interested. Once they got there, they saw that Sonia already was there, thought there wasn't any sign of either Ruki or Krieg just yet.

"…wonder where they could be…?" Natal wondered out loud.

"Who knows," Cal responded.

"But question is, should we wait for them?" asked Rudy.

"…well, one of us could go and look after them, y'know." Newt suggested with a shrug.

"I'll go," Cal offered.

"…sure you won't need anyone coming along?" Wiper hummed, glancing at the monkey curiously.

"I'll be fine," Cal assured. "As long as I'm invisible, anyway." With that, the monkey disappeared in the air right before them, and the bushes rustled to the side, implying that Cal had left.

"…that's interesting." Sonia hummed once she saw Cal vanish like that.

"…well, I suppose we should wait until he returns with them." Natal mused, folding her arms.

And so, they waited. However, even hours later, neither Cal, Krieg or Ruki showed any signs of showing up, leaving a few of the group members to simply train on their own close-by whilst waiting.

After a long while, both Ruki and Krieg actually did show up, but neither of them had even seen any sign of Cal whatsoever, forcing them to wait even longer for the monkey to come, but Cal never showed up, even then.

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous." Natal groaned in aggravation, as she stood up from where she sat. "I'm gonna go look for him."

"This time, I'm coming with," Boomer said. "If he's been gone for this long, I wouldn't go alone."

"…I believe I should accompany you, as well." Krieg hummed. "I know a bit about the island, so if he's gotten lost somewhere…"

…_aren't you supposed to be blind?_ Newt thought in puzzlement.

"…well, let's go look for him." Natal nodded, turning to where Cal had left earlier.

"We'll all wait for you guys here then," Charmy decided, watching the three of them disappear off in the direction they remembered Cal going off to.

As the three walked through the woods, Natal kept glancing around her to try and find a clue on where Cal could be. Krieg, on the other hand, remained quiet, simply focusing on walking straight ahead. Boomer, meanwhile, tried to think of where Cal could disappear to. If they could think of where to look, rather than run around the whole island, then they could save time.

"...he went looking for you and Ruki, Krieg," Boomer said, "so we should look around the mountain first to see if he's there."

Hearing that, Krieg stopped.

It took Boomer and Natal a short while to realize that Krieg had stopped walking, which prompted them to stop as well, looking back at the warthog. "…Krieg?" Natal uttered.

"…the mountain…" Krieg hummed. "…he could be there… but there's also a good chance that Spiel could be there, as well."

"...is there something wrong with that?" Boomer inquired.

"…let's just say that if Spiel found Cal around the mountain…" Krieg murmured, as he began picking up the pace, walking ahead of the two girls. "… Cal would be lucky to escape unscathed."

The two could only watch Krieg as he went ahead of them, before they looked at each other. "…we should hurry." Natal eventually said.

Boomer didn't like the sound of that, and agreeing with Natal, they hurried.

* * *

Sunset came when they made it to the mountain pass, and they had been stepping around in the brush and looking through the trail thoroughly. Thankfully, Spiel hadn't been around as Krieg had assumed, but so far, they found no sign of Cal yet.

"Sheesh… where could he be?" Natal murmured, before she glanced up towards the path leading up the mountain. Krieg had gone up it earlier, telling the two of them that they wouldn't need to go up there with him.

"...I hope that crazy monkey didn't get into trouble," Boomer grumbled, walking through the brush on the side of the path.

"Ow."

"...huh?" Boomer felt something under her foot. It felt soft, and yet thick. Pulling up her foot and moving some of the brush aside, it turned out that Boomer had accidentally stepped on someone's face. She turned her head back to Natal. "Found him!" she called.

"…you did?" Natal hummed, as she walked over to Boomer, looking down at where she had stepped. "…well, there you are." she mused, looking down at Cal, before pulling him to his feet. "Where have you been, all day?"

Cal wiped his face tiredly. "I..." and he found something quite strange. His mind was drawing a total blank for an answer. "...actually, the funny thing is that I don't know."

"...you're kidding, right?" Boomer growled dryly. "You've been gone a whole day, and you don't even know what you were doing?"

"...I was gone a whole day?" That sure was a surprise to Cal.

"…yeah." Natal nodded. "You went to look for Ruki and Krieg, remember? You didn't even come when the two of them wound up by the meeting spot on their own, and… now the day's almost over." Then, she sighed. "So in the end, we got a minimal amount of training in for today…"

Cal scratched his head in puzzlement...and also a little guiltily. "...Gee, sorry guys," he said. "I just...have no idea what happened. I can't remember." He wondered if maybe he somehow dozed off.

Boomer would've yelled at him, but when she heard him say that he didn't remember, there was something to that which made her quiet...and thoughtful. _Now why wouldn't he remember, I wonder? _she thought.

"…so you found him." Hearing that voice, the three of them glanced towards the pass, where Krieg was walking down from. "Where was he?"

"Lying around." Natal replied. "In any case, it's getting late. We should head back to the others."

So they did. Cal got a bit of a lecture from Boomer, since she was looking forward to some training, but other than that, they were glad that he was found and alright. With serial killers on the loose, it didn't bode well when someone was gone for longer than they should be.

Anyhow, it was the late evening before the gang finally headed back to the pub. Upon entering, Ani burst out and almost ran into them. "Whoops, sorry guys!" she called, running off.

"Hey Ani, where are ya going?" Rudy called back.

"Captain Whisker's having a slumber party on the ship!" then she was gone.

"…slumber party, eh?" Newt hummed.

"I suppose they decided to prepare some form of pre-emptive celebration before the tournament, or something." Wiper shrugged, placing his hands behind his head whilst looking upwards.

"Well, let's shove off to bed," Charmy said with a yawn, slowly ambling inside, with all of the others following. The pub was closed down and quiet, so they just made their way to the back hallway. However, Boomer wasn't even allowed to touch the doorknob to hers and Newt's room.

"NO! DON'T GO IN THERE!" Hunter jumped right there, blocking the door off to them.

"...Hunter, what the hell?" Boomer stamped her foot. "This is mine and Newt's room!"

Hunter looked very afraid of Boomer right now, or her temper anyway, and he uneasily averted his eyes to the door. "...someone's using it."

"What?" Boomer just couldn't believe it. How could they lend their room to someone like that!

"Someone's…" Newt uttered, tilting his head. "…but… no one else is sleeping over here but us, right?"

"Curious…" Natal hummed, rubbing her chin.

"Would you really loan someone a room like that?" Boomer complained, certainly mad. Today, she was woken up with cold water poured on her face, she HARDLY got any training done today because of Cal, and NOW they can't even go to sleep in their own room? She had a reason to be unhappy.

"...listen," Hunter looked pretty serious, which actually stopped Boomer's tantrum. "...I'll tell you who's using that room...but it's going to be pretty shocking, so I suggest that you keep it a secret."

"…I'm sure we can all keep a secret." Wiper said, shooting everyone present a look, and giving Hunter a nod. "Go ahead."

Hunter still hesitated in telling them, which made Boomer impatient. "Well?"

"...Metal and Jill are in there," he finally said, and that grabbed Charmy's attention like nothing before.

"…Metal and…" Newt began, slowly tilting his head.

"…Jill…" Natal continued, tilting her head the other way.

"…is that so…" Wiper mused, rubbing his chin.

"...but..." Cal just stared at Hunter blankly and wonderingly.

Boomer's eyes were wide as melons. "...you're joking, right?" she uttered.

"...no, I'm not joking," Hunter replied.

"…but… why would they…" Newt uttered, as he scratched his head.

"…do you know why they're in there, Hunter?" Natal inquired, folding her arms.

"...well..." Boy, was that an uncomfortable question for Hunter if there ever was. He didn't even need to answer however, because Charmy had the answer. The old bee just closed his eyes thoughtfully.

Then he chuckled. "...I guess they really hit it off."

Cal shot his Captain a baffled look. "What?"

"What did you say!" both Newt and Natal said in surprise, looking at the bee with baffled looks as well.

Wiper, however, was silent, merely glancing at Charmy.

"...I don't get it, what's going on?" Rudy asked, completely oblivious to what was going on, really. Charmy chuckled again at Rudy's naivete.

"...you mean to say...that Metal and Jill are..." Boomer put two and two together, but she just couldn't believe it.

"...he's right," Hunter confirmed.

The silence in the air was so immense at that moment, that one could hear a pin drop from miles away.

"…in any case…" Wiper eventually said, folding his arms. "…you and Newt currently lack a bedroom, Boomer." Then, he turned his gaze towards the duck. "You can have my room for tonight."

Hearing that, Newt turned to Wiper. "You sure about that?" he uttered. "I mean, y'know, where are you gonna sleep?"

"I'll figure something out." Wiper shrugged. "Besides, I insist."

"...well, alright," Boomer said. "...c'mon Newt." and she walked quietly toward Wiper's room. With an awkward nod, Newt followed Boomer.

"There's always Sonia's, Wiper," Charmy said. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind having you over."

"...but what happened? What's with Metal and Jill?" Rudy pestered, still clueless to what was going on.

Charmy just chuckled again. "It's nothing, Rudy," he said. "I'll tell you in the morning."

"Perhaps it could wait until after the tournament?" Wiper hummed, glancing at Charmy. "That way, he could be more focused on getting through it without his mind wandering."

"Aw, c'mon!" Rudy complained at Wiper's suggestion.

"Either way, it's late and we should be getting to bed," Cal said.

"I agree." Wiper nodded, as he began heading down the hall. "Good night, everyone… and good luck, tomorrow.

* * *

**_And now, to work on the 15th chapter of 5 Years Later! XD_**


End file.
